The hors d'oeuvres competition up the street last night was yummy, and the winner, ceviche, was absolutely delicious.  (Its main ingredients were shrimp, mango, red onion, cilantro, and jicama; hard to go wrong with those!)  I oinked out and ate so many of the goodies (going back for seconds on the ceviche, the meatballs, and Tom's beef stick&cheese baked inside pastry) that when the actual dinner appeared (!) I didn't have any room left.  Instead I held 6-month-old Hunter so his mom and dad could eat in relative peace.  Afterward we played poker (who knew there were SO many varieties???) Although I am certainly no superhero I surprised myself by actually winning a few hands.  

I bought in for $4 and cashed out for $3 - and can't remember last time I had so much fun for a dollar!  Eventually I found a little room and nibbled on Bonnie's crockpot chicken enchilada casserole which was so good I got the recipe from her.  (Yes, it sounds simple enough even for me to make!)  And then I had some of Jeannie's homemade pies (a slice of blueberry and a slice of lemon, both delicious.)  It was a late evening, but I had snuck home after a couple of hours to walk Elmo.

Today started off quite relaxing, since I slept in until almost 8:00.  I know that didn't happen at houses with little kids! And speaking of houses with kids, I saw on FB today that Ed & Casey (and Charlie and Harry) woke up (in Maryland) to a cold house due to a broken furnace.  BRR! 

 Luckily for them there was actually a repairman working today (!) AND he had the necessary part to fix it.

Lisa wasn't picking up Alex on her way over here until mid-morning, so even sleeping in I still had plenty of time to get stuff done before they arrived.  After putting the turkey into the oven I mucked off the sewing table (that's a never-ending job...), set the dining table, peeled/diced the potatoes, got the greens beans ready, made the salad, etc.  

Tom and I dressed for the occasion.

Once the kids arrived we got down to important business.  First was the breaking of the wishbone from the Thanksgiving turkey.  May be hard to tell here, but Alex won.

Then it was time to get down to some serious business of diving into the gifts.

But first, we had to check out the stockings. (Yes, I did make all of them.)

A brotherly hug says thanks for the blue shirt. 

 (And seeing the kids getting along after some rough patches makes Mom VERY happy!)

Speaking of shirts, Alex did like his WINKLE shirt (despite Tom's predictions!)  When Alex sent a phone pic of it to his roommate Clay (who also clans), Clay liked it also.  

So after we ate I figured I'd whip up one for Clayt0niou5 with one of the extra green shirts.  There was no problem getting the shirt ready (and centered, unlike Alex's!) and the embroidery machine programmed to sew.  Once it was humming along I washed some dishes.  But when it was done, for some reason it had embroidered the final 5 on top of the preceding letter u. 

other than that technology hates me? but Clay will just have to deal with it.  SIGH!

Maybe they can wear their 'official' shirts when they're dueling with Alex's new remote controlled helicopters.

Alex did a bunch of his shopping at BevMo.  

And the taste test went well!

I was pretty sure Alex would like the red solo cup (and despite that face, he did!)

Here he is helping Tom assemble my new shelf.  Tom's ulterior motive is for me to put it 'somewhere' and get yet more of my quilting stuff out of the family room.

It 'came with' a bunch of clear plastic tubs to help me organize.

We all got LOTS of wonderful, thoughtful gifts.  

Among my numerous goodies today were a massage certificate (always welcome!), a beaded hummingbird (to replace the beaded parrot that fell off of my keychain not long after I got it), a gift certificate for some embroidery software (that will be fun to shop with), a bunch of books (always appreciated), several pairs of snuggly socks (they are so soft!), a quilting calendar (complete with the patterns), some hand-quilted pillow shams, assorted chocolates (yum!), and a quilt puzzle.

Which Tom and I already put together tonight.

Tom and the kids seemed very pleased with their hauls also.  

It was a great day, and certainly a much better way to celebrate than this time last year!

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, and Santa was good to you.