The Best Christmas EVER!!!!

It really and truly was the BEST Christmas I can remember!!
We host all my children and  grandchildren on Christmas Eve every year and this year EVERYONE was able to come!!! 

Rayne Roo was the first to arrive along with her Mummers and Grammy - aka Summer and Sabrina!

I loved her cute outfit and brought out an angel to match!

My son and his family came shortly afterwards and we all gathered in the gazebo where I served the adults some Jack Daniels Fudge and the kids had Christmas Crackers.

We also tried tiny little glasses of a layered drink that was fun to pour!

Some layered better than others!

First layer: Coffee Liqueur

Second layer: Irish Cream

Third layer: Peppermint Schnapps 

Here we all are hanging out in the gazebo!

We even had a fire going in the fire pit manned by my two oldest grandsons who are both Boy Scouts!

The evening was off to a fine start! We sat out there and laughed and talked and had such a good time!

My photos are a little out of order but I want to mention how much we have enjoyed all the Christmas cards we received this year! Each and every one is special to us and I will be stacking them up and choosing a different one every day in 2016 to use as a prayer card and promise to pray for each one! Next year I am going to send Christmas cards! The last couple of years I just have not got around to it!

Christmas Eve Table

The dessert table:

Chocolate and Coconut Pies

Angel Graham Bars

Christmas Crackers

Cookie Dough Cups and Chocolate Coins

The chocolate coins were a big hit with the grands!

Gifts! Gifts! Everywhere we could stack them!!!

My handsome son, Jesse, and his beautiful wife, Leigh Ann!

My sweet daughter, Amber, and her handsome husband, Mike!

Yours truly and my beloved!

Ben really enjoyed being around his nephews and Sam and Levi think their Uncle Ben is really cool!!! Ben lived in California for a few years and he's missed a couple of Christmases so Levi didn't really know him. As a matter of fact - Levi asked his mom, "Who IS that guy??" He was so surprised when he found out his daddy has a brother!!

Here is Jesse and his whole family!

Louis Dean has been battling allergies and asthma for much of December but he fortified himself with a glass of wine and hung in there with all of us for the entire evening!

Funny faces from the five youngest grands!!

Funny faces from a few others as well!!!

Granddad was pretty proud of his coffee cup among other great gifts!

I just love this picture!

Amber had a bit of surgery on her right foot PLUS injections in both knees early on Christmas Eve morning. She was NOT to be on her feet afterwards but nothing would keep her from being with the family! I must say that she was NOT able to even stand up by the end of the night! Her husband toted her to the car piggy back fashion!

All lined up and ready to open gifts!

This was a lot of fun to watch!!!

They were all so patient and so GOOD!!!

They were as excited about Rayne opening the gifts THEY gave her as they were about opening their own!

Aunt Leigh Ann brought lots of EXTRA toys for them and they played and played with this doll house!

Isn't this pic of Harrison the cutest thing ever???

Thanks to Leigh Ann and Summer for all the photos in tonight's post!!

Logan could tell we needed some help opening up some of ours!

My first born and last born children!!!

Hahahaha!!!

Let's just say that EVERYONE loved their Texas Trash!!!

You can see Amber is wearing a boot. By the time she was ready to go home her incision was bleeding and her foot was swollen so she had to prop it up on a pillow! She began to understand the importance of staying off of it!!

Three of the handsome men in my life!

My very first grandchild who is now so tall he TOWERS over me!!!

After gifts we went out on the side deck and rolled sugar plums!

My kids dearly love these things! I had rolled the dough in balls earlier so all they had to do was roll the balls in the sugars and sprinkles. Each family took home a bag of sugarplums!

We all stayed up late on Christmas Eve!

Mike and I gave the quads their baths and out their Jammie's on so they could be tucked right into bed as soon as they got home.

After loading all the kids in the car, Mike came back for Amber!

Bless her heart!! She couldn't even stand up but here she is smiling anyway!!

It was 1:30 when I went to bed!

I posted this on Facebook:

I am going to bed now but I'm still basking in the glow of a most wonderful Christmas Eve with all four of my children and all eight of my grandchildren! It was the best Christmas Eve EVER!!

Christmas morning came early and poor Louis Dean was not in good shape at all!

He was too sick to go with me to Fort Worth to spend the day with my siblings.

Here we all are!

Each of us sisters had a daughter there!

Nita had her Leah.

Deanie had Trish and Andie!

I had Summer!

We ALL had fun!!!

Nita and Mike have the most amazing home!!!

This is their 'game room.'

All set for the Chinese Christmas Tree!!!

Mother won the small Santa painting and Lonnie and Michele got the one of Santa having tea!

After a few people started leaving, the rest of us took our Poinsettias out to sip on Nita's back porch.

The day was just beautiful!!

It felt just like a California Christmas!!

Sabrina and Rayne were soon off to another Christmas celebration!

We gather on Christmas morning for a big breakfast leaving the rest of the day for those other places some of us need to get to!

My sweet sister in law, Michele.

We just sat out there for an hour or more talking and laughing and catching up with everyone!

It was wonderful!

I snapped this pic as I was sitting across from Nita!

I was thinking how beautiful she is - inside and out!!

Lonnie is recovering nicely from both of his knee replacements!

He can straighten his legs and walks without a limp!

Summer and I were the last ones to leave that day.

She and I both took a nap and then visited some more before we all left to go over to Leah's house.

I love seeing her home!!

Her sweet little cat named Mia lives on a shelf in the laundry room!!

Cat on a shelf!!!

Mia doesn't care for the two dogs who live with them so she prefers a place up off the floor and away from the doggies!!

Finally I made it home and snuggled up under the Christmas Quilt Leah made for the Chinese Christmas Tree this year and which I so proudly WON!!!!

I may have given the evil eye to anyone who threatened to 'steal' it away from me!!!

The day after Christmas is a good time for me to stock up on LIGHTS for the next year!

I went to bed at 10:00 Christmas night and woke up at 8:00 the next morning.

That rest gave me just the energy I needed for my shopping spree!!!

I bought the bulk of them at Big Lots where there was not even a crowd!!

I made a stop at Home Depot for the rest of them and now I am all set!!!

I use the white lights year round. I even found some solar LED lights in warm white!

I'm not a big fan of those cool whites!

You would think I spend a lot of time by myself but I don't.

Quiet time all alone is hard to come by so I popped into Sam's and bought a pretzel and drink Saturday afternoon and spend a few minutes reading. Simple but oh, so special!!

On the way home I decided to walk around the lake at North Lake college.

The place was totally deserted and and only after I had walked a good ways and had to take a detour between two of the buildings where the lake was under excavation, it dawned on me that this may not have been the best idea I ever had! If something happened NO ONE would ever think to look for me there!!! I called Louis Dean and talked to him all the way back to my car!!

Note to self - make sure someone knows where I am going!

By the time I got home the weather had begun to change.

Louis Dean and I sat out in the gazebo with the wind whipping up and the rain pouring down!

While it was a cozy night for us, it was a night of destruction and devastation for some.

My daughter lives in Rowlett where hundreds of homes were demolished by the tornadoes that twisted through there!

Thankfully my daughter's home was not damaged but so much destruction and so many lives affected. No one was killed in Rowlett - miraculously!

However, 11 people lost their lives last night.

It's sad to end such a happy Christmas post on such a sad note but isn't that the way life is?

There's as much sorrow as there is joy and we all have our share.

Hoping YOU had a merry Christmas and wishing all of you a happy and SAFE New Year!!