Splendid Christmas Evening

  Later on Christmas Day, my sister, Nick, and my parents joined us for dinner, presents, drinks and dessert.

Dinner was a group effort, with turkey, Honey Baked Ham, roast potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, brussel sprouts, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy and Yorkshire pudding on the menu.

 What a lovely treat it was for Stace and me to look around the dining table and see these smiling faces. Having Christmas dinner in our home with all the grandparents was a special treat for our family.

Before eating, we lifted a toast to Stacey's Nan, whose presence was deeply missed. And, we also missed seeing Dean, Jenny, Euan and Olivia in person.

 After dinner came the Christmas crackers, complete with corny jokes. Cora was able to read her own jokes this year, while Violet pretended to read hers. Really, she was just making up sillier and sillier jokes, cracking up all the while.

 Then we moved on to the gifts. Here, the grandmothers open their calendars. Grandma is wearing a dollar-store sticky candy cane mustache, as you do on Christmas. "Don we now our ... striped mustaches..."

 Nan was very pleased with her handmade necklace from Cora. Cora had a lot of fun wrapping and giving gifts this year. It was great seeing her excitement about giving.

 She gave me this stunning diamond brooch - we really must monitor her spending more closely!

Actually, she bought it at her school's holiday gift shop for $5 - she kept telling people its cost, and was quite impressed with the sum. She couldn't wait for me to open it, and was so pleased when I put it on.

 The girls received so many nice presents - too many to put up all the photos! I loved this picture though, with them both together with the figurines from the film Frozen. Since they loved the movie, they also love playing with the tiny dolls. Violet especially likes taking them around with her, making them act and talk.

Lastly, here's a cute photo of Grandma and Cora. Cora and Daddy pose with her gift to us that she made at school, with her footprint and hand prints forming the reindeer.
Stace's creative placement of the mustache cost him some of his eyebrows.
fff