Tag Archives: Holiday

Family, Food, Photo-A-Day

Early Christmas 2022

Mem and Grandfather and the grandkids
Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01446

We celebrated Christmas early this year because we are doing things a bit differently in 2022. We are heading to Florida for the holiday and so in order to see everyone on my side of the family we had our Christmas Eve Chicken Stew dinner with Mem and Grandfather, Tara and Erik, Shelby and Tim and the cousins Dylan and Kylie. We hosted everyone at our house for the afternoon.

Meat roses

Andy learned how to make meat roses from the pepperoni, salami and more salami from a YouTube Short and he did an excellent job setting up the Charcuterie board. He worked really hard at it, too. His first one did not come out right because the glass was too big, however he redid it in a wine flute and got his ideal flower.

Chicken Stew

Allison made her Christmas time famous chicken stew that is something that everyone in the family can enjoy. There were gluten free rolls for our gluten free family members and Pillsbury biscuits for everyone else. We were able to all fit around the dining room table and used all but one chair in the house to do it. It wasn’t quite Thanksgiving Charlie Brown but close.

Ugly Sweater Cookie

Allison had asked what I wanted for dessert and that would be sugar cookies. I had gotten an ugly sweater cookie set from the Christmas Story Christmas mailer and so they made the cookies and the kids got to decorate them.

Kylie and Eva Decorating Cookies

Eva and Kylie made from really nice looking cookies. Kylie loaded up on the frosting with abandon. She was having the time of her life.

Andy and his cookie decorating skills

Andy was also having a great time with the cookies. He’s so very detailed when he decorates, too. He does such a nice job with food.

Uncle Erik and Eva with Ugly Sweater Cookies

Eva shared one of her cookies with Uncle Erik.

Everyone had a nice time. We enjoyed each other’s company and exchanged gifts. Everyone was impressed with the tree and how nice it looked. We were very lucky to find such a nice looking artificial tree and I am glad that we did because it looks so nice. We didn’t do family photos around the tree, though. We should have done some of those right when everyone arrived. Otherwise it doesn’t happen. We did get photos with Mem and Grandfather and their grandkids, however. So that was a good catch. It was a nice day to spend with everyone.

Photo-A-Day

Our 2022 Hallmark Family Ornament

Hallmark Family Ornament
Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01440

Here’s something interesting. There used to be Hallmark stores and that is where you could go to get the Hallmark Keepsake ornaments every year. Each year I would get the family ornament for our tree. This year and last I had to order them from the Hallmark website because there are no more Hallmark stores around and CVS doesn’t even carry a large selection or ornaments anymore. When I placed my order this year the ornament wasn’t one where you slide an image into a little window like every other one from years past. This year you uploaded one of your photos to the website and it was printed right onto the ornament. I looked through our past year and looking for family photos was interesting. We didn’t have too may of the four of us together that would work. We did have a couple of nice ones form King Richard’s Faire from when we went for Eva’s birthday. That was the perfect photo because our trips to King Richard’s Faire are always filled with fun family memories. I had hoped that the ornament would get there in time for us to trim the tree this past Friday but I am glad that it came before Christmas.