Twas the end of Christmas

and we survived it all!

The fiesta went well, although it seemed as if we had a smaller group than usual. I counted and we had 17 people, so maybe not, but it seemed smaller. There was a slight hiccup at the beginning, since The Michael (fixer of Rotel and bringer of sodas) had a sudden illness. We survived on water and wine and juice until he was able to make it, and I had a free crock pot in which to make the Rotel dip.

The cheese cookies went over well, I suppose. I have quite a few of them left, but I did make a huge bowl of them. The Michael says he liked them, but I think he's just humoring me to some extent. And he was sick anyway.

I spent part of the party making more cookies, since the children cleared out the first four dozen within the first 30 minutes. Not that I minded, really. I like to cook, and these were just slice and bake things that I had gotten at Kroger, and I always like to send the children home with cookies for Santa. I also made rice krispy treats during the party, partly because I didn't have time earlier and I wanted those! My marshmallows had gotten misplaced (at a level that makes me think some child moved them), but I managed with a jar of marshmallow creme that I had bought (and then forgotten) for the church food baskets. They were a little more gooey than usual, but gooey is okay for rice krispy treats to me!

Our lasts guests left just after 11:30. We gave the children baths and got them into bed just after midnight, then Skeeter and I cleaned up the party mess and got the stockings ready. Normally it's just me getting the stockings ready, and it was much more fun to have Skeeter as a partner in it.

Because the children were up so late, they slept late (yay!), and they weren't ready to do stockings until about 9 am. Stocking gifts were well received, and we got on our way to the rest of the family celebrations.

We got there around 11:30, after three small but necessary stops. More gift opening, then off to eat. And eat and eat.

After the gluttony, we retreated to enjoy the gifts. Spyder spent the afternoon shooting paper targets and skeet with his new (Daisy Red Ryder) BB gun. Sass had to stay inside most of the time, as she is working on a terrible cold. She truly wanted to play with the dogs, but she had to be content with her new My Little Pony set.

We got back home at about 8:30 this evening. I was too tired to do much of anything, so I'll spend tomorrow organizing. And catching up on the neglected blog. :)

I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas!