Christmas Morn

Instead of A Christmas Carol we wound up watching A Christmas Story last night and I dozed on and off throughout so went to bed at 10:30. Woke up at 3 a.m. and was still awake at 4 a.m. (thinking about how we are going to arrange all the card tables and chairs on Sunday to seat 30+ people - it always works out so why do I fret :-) - so I got up. I cleaned out the freezer in the kitchen to make room for the slush (recipe below) that the nieces are all wanting me to make for our gathering on Sunday. Now I have room for that AND the peppermint ice cream for sister Carol.

I filled the stockings, took some pictures (which I will post later) and put on my Mannheim Steamroller Christmas CD's. (I got one in my stocking - Morning Frost) I am just sitting here in the light of the Christmas tree listening to their beautiful music. How peaceful!
Buddy (our beagle) is curled up on the couch asleep. He is usually gated in the kitchen so it is a real treat for him to be out. Louie (our cat) is in the basement and must be sound asleep. Usually as soon as he hears someone up and about he is meowing at the basement door wanting his food. If you saw him you would see how much food means to him. He weighs 22 pounds! He was up to 25 and the vet put him on a diet. He doesn't like that - he really likes his food.

I have 2 Butter Braids thawing for breakfast. If you have never had Butter Braids you should try them. They are wonderful pastries that are sold as fundraisers. They come frozen - hard as a brick- and you thaw them overnight then just pop in the oven. There is a small packet of icing that you drizzle over the top. We love the cream cheese one but DD19's boyfriend doesn't care for cream cheese and prefers the cinnamon one so we had to try it last year. So now we have one of each :-) On the website they show a bavarian cream with chocolate icing that looks wonderful! I may have to order one of those the next time someone is selling them. Usually someone at work brings in an order form for their child's fundraiser. I don't buy many things that way but never pass up the butter braids - yum yum!

I will make a fresh fruit salad (well fresh for the most part) using a can or two of mandarin oranges and adding bananas and apples. I strated making that when the girls were little. They loved mandarin oranges and if we had some apples and/or bananas that had been around a while I would mix them in. It is still a favorite for the whole family. I'll fry up some turkey bacon and I found some frozen sausage patties in the freezer when I cleaned it. Some time in the past, I had a pound of pork sausage and went ahead and made it all into patties and cooked them all at once - freezing what I did not need - thinking I would grab one every now and then for a quick breakfast sandwich on a slice of bread. But they were under other things in the freezer so forgot they were there.

SLUSH RECIPE:
1 large can pineapple juice
2 cups Tang instant drink powder
3 quarts water

Mix all together in a 5 - 6 quart container (the large plastic ice cream buckets work well - I don't think a gallon would be large enough though). Place in freezer. Take out and stir well every hour or so. When slushy serve in cups - kids love it!
If left in the freezer too long it will freeze into a huge popsicle. You can still serve it but scraping - but I hate that so I make the kids (most are in their 20's now) scrap it themselves.
If you have an ice shaver you could also freeze some in the smaller containers and shave it to make a flavored snow cone.

We first had this slush at sister Jane's wedding (1980). It was so popular that Mom made it for many family gatherings. Whenever we gather for some event at our house the nieces and nephews (mostly nieces) beg me to make it. One year we took a picture of all the kids with their orange tongues and lips - a side effect of eating the slush.

You can also make it using kool-aid in place of the Tang. Use a 2 quart size packet of sweetened Kool-Aid in place of the Tang. We made seafoam green one year for VBS - the stories were based on Jonah and we used an ocean theme. By substituting Blueberry Kool-Aid for the Tang it made a nice bluish-green color.

Now I am getting sleepy again - but it is time to get started on the bread pudding! The girls plan on getting up at 8 a.m. to open presents - but I know one will be up long before that :-) I'm surprised DD17 has not ventured down yet. She usually is not a sound sleeper and wakes if anyone else is up. She gets so excited about checking her stocking and opening the presents. I love her child-like joy!

Joy to the World - the Lord has come! May you have a blessed Christmas Day!