Preparing for Christmas Eve.....and Happy Birthday to Deanie!

For some reason Louis Dean and I stayed up so late last night.
We just kept doing one little thing after another and before we knew it - the clock said 2:00 AM.
Louis Dean looked at me and said, "Back in our younger days, this would mean a trip to Whataburger!" We have done that more than once! You can read about it HERE.
Now I feel like Sandra aka Mad Snapper!! I loved her links yesterday.

Since we were up so late, we both slept in.

I went in to wake the kitties up about 10:30 and then I crawled back up into bed and stayed there until nearly 1:00 this afternoon! I had my coffee and quiet time right there propped up on my pillows.

It was about 2:00 when we each got started on our projects.

This is the face of a happy man!!!

He is loving his new deck and says this was the hard part - the rest of it will go fast!

While he was outside 'playing' - I was working on food prep for Christmas Eve.

I'm trying to do as many things ahead of time as I can possibly get done.

It's more fun if you're exhausted and I truly love doing family dinners.

Sweet potato casserole - Done!

I always bake it in this dish.

I make this so often I no longer date it!

The topping recipe is on the back of the page - sometimes I forget that.

Instead of the evaporated milk and the sugar for the potatoes, I used sweetened condensed milk.

First time I have tried this so I wonder if anyone will notice?

My hands are still burning from these peppers!

I mixed cream cheese and shredded Colby to fill them. 

Tomorrow I will cook up a pound of bacon and crumble it to put on top. Then all I have to do is bake them on Christmas Eve.

I made up another batch of caramels.

This time I cooked it for 2 minute intervals, stirring between each one for a total of 8 minutes.

It taste SO good!!

I have one more batch to make in the morning.

Ahhhhhhh......

I heated us up some Taco soup for supper and he ate and went right to sleep.

I lifted the tray and he didn't even wake up.

He slept through an entire John Wayne movie while I was in here in the sewing room finishing up his quilt. He came in and said goodnight, he was so ready to go to bed.

It's not midnight yet so I am going to close tonight's journal entry and then make the rounds turning off all the little lights, locking all the doors and setting things to right for in the morning.

"Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice."

Psalm 65:8

I love this Bible verse!

And now for Louis Dean.....

"The sleep of a labouring man is sweet."

Ecclesiastes 5:12

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OOPS!! 

I rushed back to say Happy Birthday to my sister, Deanie!
She's so special, I think there was an extra bright star in the sky tonight!