Christmas eve

It feels weird today.

There's no rushing to get that last minute item that Mom finally told us she'd like.

There's no scrambling to get cookies baked

There's no arguing with wrapping paper and tape.

There's no grumbling over waiting until the last minute to decorate the tree.

I've got the turkey for tomorrow in the brine and in the fridge. It's my first time trying a brine. Great Recipe experiment #2. Results will be posted tomorrow.

Both sis and I feel like we should be doing something. About the only thing to do is shovel the driveway. Yesterday it was 55ºF out and all the snow from last weekend melted. But it's only 28ºF out now. The wind is gusty and it's bitter out. I don't feel like shoveling.

Tonight we will have our traditional Christmas Eve dinner. And if the weather's ok, we want to go get in the car and drive around the development and look at the Christmas lights on all the houses.

My aunt and uncle are coming over on Friday for Family Christmas. I'll be making the ham from the nice ham lady yesterday.

It's going to be a quiet and sedate holiday. Loved ones will be missed. But we shall hold them in our hearts.

New tradition

Tonight after dinner sis and I started a new Christmas Eve tradition. It's something we've wanted to do for years but could never motivate mom to do with us.

We bundled up, took the puppy and drove around the neighborhood looking at the holiday lights.

It was interesting because last night we had a huge windstorm and so a lot of decorations had fallen down/over. But here are some pictures we got:

( Willow Ridge in Lights - the good, the bad, and the tacky )