Weekend and Elrod Christmas:

Friday:

We had a wonderful evening.  We started out by going by the hospital to visit Mom and then to Apple Bees for supper.  It's one of the best meals I've ever had there.  I went out of my comfort zone and order Tequila Chicken n Shrimp with Avocado Tango Sauces.  I don't even like Tequila!!  It was delicious.   You could cut the chicken with a fork and there was a large amount of shrimp with it.  This was followed by a madhouse Wal-Mart trip to buy last minute Christmas gifts.  We had fun looking for the kid's gifts but Dwayne had a hard time sticking to the price limit.  I had to tame him down a few times.  lol

Saturday:

I spent the day preparing food for our Elrod Christmas that evening.  I even hummed and sang a bit while cooking.  I am NOT a singer, so it's good no one was home.  lol

This was one of the best Elrod gatherings we had.  So much fun watching the kids open presents.  Poor baby Cash was still sick from a stomach bug so he didn't get to enjoy the evening much.

Our new tradition is that David cooks the meat.  David is an exceptional barbecue and we had barbecued ribs, smoked pork tenderloin and smoked wild turkey.  All delicious!!

I wore the sweatshirt I made for my mother-in-law years ago when applique was in style.  It has all the grandkids as angels with their name and date of birth under each angel.  It was one of Dodie's favorite gifts.  I've decided that will be a new tradition for me to wear it every year in remembrance of Dodie.

We were missing one of David's boys this year.  Andy and his girlfriend and family couldn't make it.  We really missed them.  Hopefully, next year we can all get together.

The Elrod cousins were excited to see Cash.  No matter our differences, the Elrod family sticks together and are truly happy at other's happiness and there for them if something bad happens.  We rejoiced this year in the exciting news of Cody and Jessie's engagement.

I am happy to be a part of this family.

Sunday:

Finally, I made it to church.  Our pastor has been out sick.  Frank did the sermon and did an excellent job.  He compared our life needing an anchor with God as the same as a boat on the river.  Without that anchor, you drift here and there and sometimes get tangled up.  Very good sermon.

After church, I took a nap before tackling cleaning the kitchen of the evening's leftover mess.

I woke energized and got the kitchen cleaned up pretty fast.  After that, I decided to tackle taking down the Christmas decorations.  I was ready to get the house back to normal.  I put all the decorations away and Dwayne took the tree and lights down.  The trips up and down the stairs to put the boxes away about wore him out.  What happened to the days of just doing things and not even noticing it-now it's a chore and it wears you out.  lol

Elrod Christmas 2013

Dwayne and I

Passing out presents

Hayden, Gabby and Grandpa David

Hayden and Cody

Chad, April and Cash

Poor sick little Cash

Cody and Jessie

Desmon

I am grateful for this time of year and times spent with family.  It's not the hype of Christmas nor the presents that make this time of year special, it's the quality time with family and friends.