Got a little behind with my blogging...

so will try to catch up some.

Monday afternoon Marcie and Latina came by, 

and Pokey shared her salad bar with Latina.

The over-ripe pear was a major hit with Pokey - but left her looking like she was foaming at the mouth! Tried to get a better pic of that...

But here she is afterward, "smacking her lips"... <g>

That night Tom and Alex and I decided to go out to dinner.  Knowing some places would be closed on Christmas Eve, we decided that Asian food was our best bet.  So our first stop was the Mongolian Grill - which was closed. Tom had mentioned Cain's, which got me thinking about their yummy chicken, so that was our next try.  It was also closed. Driving back and forth on Bell I'd noticed the new SlapFish restaurant all lit up (and remembered that several folks had raved on FB about their seafood) so we back-tracked to there - but it wasn't open either. At this point we were 0 for 3, so I suggested Carrabba's.  It was open, but it definitely was not a good sign that the parking lot was packed and there were mobs of people waiting.  Sure enough, the wait was going to be over an hour.

We ended up at Oregano's, which didn't have the massive wait.  Between the garlic bread and the (what-turned-out-to-be massive) appetizer Tom ordered since there was going to be a substantial cook wait for one of our dishes, all three of us were quite stuffed by the time our meals arrived.  No real problem - we brought them home as leftovers, which we'll no doubt enjoy tonight.

Christmas morning I was up at 5:00 at which point I deviled the eggs, then peeled and diced a huge pot of potatoes for the mashers.  Alex was actually (sort of) awake reasonably early, and called just as Tom was stumbling toward the coffee maker for his first cup.  But he seemed happy to hear that there was no rush to get started tearing into the pile of gifts under the tree.

Tyga was a big help, supervising!

There were a lot of food items, and (not) surprisingly, 

most of mine were in the chocolate category. 

Tyga was a big help, sniffing out food items!

Both Tom and Alex liked their salt and pepper grinders 

(and we tried out our set during our Christmas meal later.)

I got two calendars, so will have to choose.

Surprisingly I received no books this year.  However, I did gift several.

On your mark, get set, unwrap!

Can't wait to read this when Tom's done with it!

Hope Alex gets even half as many laughs out of his Broetry book as Marcie and I did!

Loved this when I read it over the summer - and it's right up Tom's alley!

Did accidentally get Tom a book he already had (and thinks I gave him a few years ago) so I've been reading and enjoying that one already.

I did, however, unwrap four quilting t-shirts.

Some of my other gifts were hummingbird earrings,

and a jigsaw puzzle (for our traditional New Year's Eve fun),

I guessed wrong on this gift from my sister; it turned out to be a spiffy set of five kitchen knives.  (Did much better guessing the socks.... lol!)

One of her gifts for Tom was the usual hoot - we cracked up over these pens!

Alex got some goodies for his van, including new side mirrors -

and seat covers.

There were lots more goodies in the pile, 

and I'd say everyone was happy with their gifts.

Linda and Rick joined us in the afternoon, when the five of us pigged out on a huge feast.  I had made a "re-run" of Thanksgiving, and they brought along several dishes to add to the feast.  

After we (eventually) finished pigging out, we played Taboo (always fun) and then Fact-or-Crap (also fun.)  It was a delightful day!