After Christmas.....

Hi everyone!!!

I sure hope you've all had a wonderful and blessed Christmas.  I'm sorry I've been away from the blog, just been concentrating on getting through the holidays and some personal issues, but now that Christmas is done and the year is drawing to a close, I am back on track.

I thought I would come in today and show you some snippits of our Christmas, tell you what I've been up to and just basically say hi and have a little chit chat.

Are you up for it?

As I'm typing up this post, I can tell you that the wind is howling outside and the rain is pounding down on us, it's been doing so for the past 26 hours, non stop.

I'm sure by now you've all seen the news and are well aware of the blizzard like conditions and the severe weather we've been hit with here in Texas.  It's been brutal, tornadoes and blizzards and just horrible weather, and my prayers have been with everyone in the path of this storm.

So Christmas eve was a very quiet one, spent just with my husband and kids.  We had a table set with just a few goodies

we opened some presents



and by 10pm I was fast asleep.  I know, nuts, but I had been in the kitchen all day long and couldn't take it anymore, so after a nice warm shower I fell asleep shortly after.

My mother and father in law came in just after 11:30pm, and Curt stayed up to wait for them.

The next morning, I was up again early making some quick and easy breakfast.  One of the things I served, which everyone loved, were these yogurt parfaits.  Strawberry yogurt, granola, frozen berries, and some trail mix fruit.  So yummy and they looked quite adorable too!

Later in the morning, my husband's Aunt arrived, along with his cousin and his brother too.  We had a very nice, laid back Christmas day, we enjoyed a Ham dinner, munched on a ton of goodies, had a few drinks and played a bunch of card and board games.  It was so much fun!!!

By Saturday noon, they had all left to return home, as the weather started getting really ugly and each of them were traveling between 2 and half to 3 hours in opposite directions, some towards southern Texas and some towards Oklahoma.

Much as we would have enjoyed having them all stay longer, the horrible weather conditions just weren't going to allow it and we wanted to be sure that everyone made it home safe.

So I'm sure by now you're kind of wondering what I got for Christmas.  This year the hubby and I decided to keep things very simple and only get each other a few goodies, but he did really well with what he chose to get me.

A new coffee machine from Hamilton Beach that allows for big pots of coffee or individual cups, using the little pods like Keurig.  Love it!!!

He also got me something I've been wanting for a while now, a Pressure Cooker, but he got me a digital one and I'm so excited to try it out this coming week.  I'll be sure to show you all and let you know what I think.

Unfortunately Curt's cousin and aunt were both quite sick and on antibiotics for colds, which I now seem to have caught on.  I haven't felt very well since yesterday morning and have pretty much been confined to my bed for the past two days.  Oh boy!!!

Thing is, I have all the symptoms of an incoming bad cold, but it hasn't hit me, and the past few years I've noticed that it seems to be how it goes for me, I am down for a day or two feeling horrid and just waiting for it to hit me full force but it never really comes to fruition.  Not sure if it will be the same this time around, guess we will see.

I've caught up on a few shows, watched the Christmas special of Downton Abbey which was the last one EVER and I'm heartbroken.  It's funny how attached you become to a show and when it ends you feel like you're losing a good friend.  I honestly can't believe it is never coming back.

Also watched the Call the Midwife Christmas special, and that was a good one as well.  Today I'm catching up on When Calls the Heart Season 2 so that I can watch the Christmas special that I recorded yesterday.

Really don't have anything else planned or on my to do list today, so going to continue to hang around and do whatever I fancy.

The wind and the rain are still coming down hard outside, but later tonight and tomorrow it is switching to snow.

Glad I don't have anywhere to go until later in the week, and that is just for grocery shopping and to run by the base pharmacy to get our prescriptions refilled.

Alright folks, I hope you have a good rest of Sunday.  I'm going to get on off of here, take some Motrin for this headache and keep looking up some recipes for my pressure cooker.  If any of you have a digital pressure cooker and some recipes, please do pass them on, I would love to have some. :)

This day in 2007:  Slow Cooking Thursday
This day in 2010:  Happy Homemaker Monday
This day in 2012:  Cooking Thursday
This day in 2013:  Low Key but wonderful Christmas