The After Christmas meltdown

  Christmas is over, thank GOD!  Am I the only one who gets depressed afterward?   It's like this enormous build up since September where you are bombarded with sales, songs, decorations, TV specials, etc!! Then in one day it's gone.  It's like that old Peggy Lee song, "Is that all there is?". For all the thought, work, heartache, stress, it should last 8 days like Hanukkah!  At least!

Since there was dissension in the family this year I hosted the family party at my house.  Again- work, stress, planning, etc.  I am getting too old for this and it's about time to pass the baton to the kids!  So this year was maybe my last big party.

And I tried to make it nice for everyone.  I bought WAY too much food and there is a ton of it back in the freezer! There are only two big eaters who came, my brother Tommy and my son-in-law Kevin, the rest of us eat like birds.  And we were constantly entertained by the two invited dogs, Tara's dog Missy and Ruth's dog Gina.  The got along great, then marked their territory and read each other's "pee mail".

Greetings doggie style

Our big gifts to the girls was a formal dress for special occasions and matching bracelet for Bri and and a very unique gift for Kaity. There is something I found in a catalog that due to a Scottish law a person can buy a tiny piece of land in Scotland can refer to themselves as Lord or Lady.  Don't think it is really true but seemed like a real cute idea.   So now Kaity owns a piece of Dunan Castle in Scotland and can now be known as Lady Kaity. It seemed like a perfect gift for a girl who is so into being a princess we sometimes wonder if she was one in a past life!

Bri in her new formal dress

Here is Lady Kaity

So that all happened on the 24th. The 23rd was Jim and my 21st wedding anniversary.  We celebrated at an upscale Italian restaurant.  We could not find a French restaurant at all and when we put in upscale restaurants in Brooksville Florida it brought up places like Pizza hut! Yeah no.  So we ended up at Bella Napoli which was very nice, great food and atmosphere and fantastic service! It reminded me of the fine Italian restaurants in the Federal Hill section of Providence, RI like Camille's Roman Garden or the Blue Grotto.  Afterward I picked out a movie I thought we would both enjoy "Why Him" which turns out I loved and he liked.  It was a little out of his comfort zone with some literal bathroom humor but still SOOO funny and Jim did laugh at some parts.

At Bella Napoli

Christmas Day we celebrated by ourselves. We don't buy each other much in fact Jim hates getting gifts.  He is full blooded Greek and they don't much care about Christmas, Easter is their major holiday. I'll never forget my first family Christmas with him when people got yelled at for buying him things!  Awkward.  So we "go easy" on him every Christmas and we just buy each other small token gifts or a big gift for the house.

While we sincerely hope everyone had a peaceful and very happy holiday we are saddened to learn of people who have passed this time of year like Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds and George Michael. It is always hard to lose a loved one but Christmas time seems to make the heart ache worse. And we are very sorry for their family's loss.

It was several nights before Christmas....

We had my daughter and family over the other day for a very small pre-holiday get together. It was mainly an excuse for the guys to sit around and drink German Beer.  My daughter and her husband were stationed in Germany for 10 years, in fact my oldest grand daughter was born there.  I was lucky enough to visit them twice and it was fabulous!  So gorgeous, friendly, immaculate. etc.  And like we have gas stations on every corner they had a castle!  So they got used to the wonderful beer which can be hard to locate here.  When they do find a place that sells it they stock up.

Their favorite

While he guys were relaxing with their brews, I put the girls to work making Christmas balls.  All I can think of is the funny references to Christmas balls thanks to South Park's Chef's chocolate salty balls and SNLs Pete Schweddy's delicious Schweddy's balls.  Mine are also chocolate and delicious.  Mom has been making them for decades but due to ill health now it falls to me.  It really is a wonderful recipe and so easy to make.

The girls chocolate ball production

The finished balls


We had the girls open one small gift from us with the rest being saved for Christmas Eve. They were decorative boxes for each of their bathrooms which I filled with jewelry. 

The girls decided my Christmas village needed some added touches. So it now features matchbox cars and a drunk Polly Pocket puking in the fountain while her horrified friend looks on. 

Oh Polly I told you to stop at 6 Margaritas!

This brings back memories of my daughter Tara as a little girl adding matchbox cars to my little village.  No little village is complete without a wrecker towing a Ferrari out of the snow. Hey, it was his mistake to drive in snow, serves him right!

There's no place like Dome for the Holidays

It's December already!  Wow, what the heck happened with November, it flew by.  Now we are coming onto the prettiest but most stress filled holiday of all, Christmas. Loved by children the world over and very few others.  And here at the Dome I have been busy decorating.  We decided to have the big family Christmas party this year at our house. There are many reasons for it but the main one is Jim refused to go anywhere else!  He is not into Christmas anyway and at least he can be comfortable in his own home. In fact I have been having a hard to time getting him to go anywhere any day! He is very reluctant to leave the property for any reason. I don't really blame him, it is so peaceful here.

One of the first decorations we made was decorated pine cones. Florida has loads of pine trees and the cones from them can be huge, well over a foot tall, more like king cone!  It is a different species of tree than northern pines and visitors are usually shocked at their size. My grand daughters Bri and Kaity painted them pink, gold and silver and sprinkled all the glitter I had all over them. Then we had a glitter fight from which I am still finding remnants.  Tara still had glitter stuck to her two days later.
When the serious cold fronts arrive fresh cones will be decked out in peanut butter and seeds for the yard critters.

Girls and king cones

Dickens people, I had to move the ghost of Christmas future to the background as the girls think he's creepy

My guardian horses all decked out

My late grandma's manger at least 100 years old!

There is a miracle I would like to share regarding the manger angel.  Every year I unwrap them I notice them a little more decrepit than the previous year. Several years ago I unwrapped the angel and all that was there was dust.  I was heartbroken as she was my favorite piece.  Hours later still bummed out I decided to go for a long drive. Tara and I ended up in Tarpon Springs. They have fantastic antique shops there so we did a little shopping.  In was upon entering one of them I got the shock of my life! There in a small display case was an exact duplicate of my angel!!  I stood in awe when the sales woman added, "isn't that sweet, it's from an antique manger". " I know", I replied, bought it, brought it home and it has looked exactly the same every year, still in fantastic condition.  If that wasn't a Christmas miracle I don't know what is!

Outside lights, all that I can reach, which at 4'9 1'2" isn't all that much

Our new flocked tree

close up of our flocked tree, when we first unwrapped it, it "snowed" in our house

My whole village 

So here we all ready, Christmas shopping and decorating is done. The cards have already been mailed out, nothing left but to enjoy the sights we only get to enjoy one month a year and look forward to my party!