More Christmas

 
Christmas Eve: M went to Pageland (8 miles away, the closest grocery store) to pick up salad for dinner. Will went outside to hit golf balls in the front yard, so Barney and Okie went out to run around. I went out to keep tabs on the pups. Saw cousin Larry and a lady from the church. After five minutes Barney was tuckered out. Since then he’s just laid around.

Came inside and got ready for supper: Ceil’s brother’s family went to the Christmas Eve service. Stoeffer’s lasagna, salad, French bread. Had 15 for dinner: me, C, W&MC, A, M, Joan, Rusty’s five plus his father-in-law, Joan, and Uncle Lennie & Aunt Corinne. Afterwards the kids played a board game.

Will cooked most of the breakfast: country ham, biscuits, fruit, and grits. Opened presents. Got a Hawks stocking cap, Grizzlies pullover and socks, and two pair of pants. Anna gave me a framed card given out the night Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run. The ticket stub is inside the frame as well.

Around noon everyone else came for lunch, a total of twenty four: our six, Rusty’s six, Phil’s five, Dic Dac’s four, Joan, Lennie, and Corinne. Ham with fixin’s for sandwiches, pimento cheese, avocado dip, other meats, Bavarian angel food cake, pecan pie, coconut cake, raspberry salad, bean dip, shrimp, pate, chocolates, and more.

After lunch we opened more presents. The eleven “kids” sang the Twelve Days of Christmas. Since Matthew is youngest he starts off with the partridge in a pear tree. Went outside for the annual picture. Dic Dac’s family had compiled a family cookbook, with lots of old recipes and photographs from both sides of their family. Took Barney and Okie outside to run around again. At one point the two dogs were running toward each other without really realizing it. Their attention was on other things, and they wound up running full speed right into each other. So funny. So Barney is worn out again.