So our grandchildren could spend Christmas day enjoying their gifts and stockings, we decided to have our family Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas. It was very enjoyable, as usual. Bill and his family and David and his family came. We had lots of fun watching everyone opening their gifts. Especially as Delilah is now old enough to understand gifts! She was so cute, running to help everyone open their packages. And there was nothing careful about it. She would grab two handfuls of wrapping paper and rip it off, throwing it over her shoulder for Ava to pick up and put in the trash bag. Then she’d dash to the next person who held a gift. By the time we were all done, her cheeks were as red as apples. No wonder Mom had to take her home for a nap!
Bill knew I was having a hard time going down the basement stairs without a railing, with my two bad knees. So, when they came, he had a stair railing on the top of his car. After dinner, he and David put it up. I am so very happy. Now I can go down to the pantry in much more safety than before. How nice that is! David gave us a cast iron tea kettle. Now I have replaced the very old, ugly saucepan that held water for steaming humidity in our dry house with a pretty black kettle. The only thing is that it makes the stove look ugly. I will have to black it soon to make it match the kettle.
Baby Melanie enjoyed Christmas, although not realizing what was going on. She still looked around with interest and even smiled at folks who made funny faces at her. It’s amazing how quickly those tiny babies grow up! She even turned over herself, at only two months of age! Yep, and grandson, Mason, is getting ready to take his driver’s test and get his license. Holy cow, they grow up way too quickly!
Our seed catalogs came on Christmas Eve. I was excited but pretty unhappy with the way FedEx delivered them. They were just set on the wet, muddy ground by our front gate, in the rain, with no covering or plastic bags. Luckily, I had just come from town. They couldn’t have been there more than half an hour or so. But still, they should have driven them to the house, where Will was waiting. Or called him so he could come out and get them. I would have hated to have them sit there overnight! Now we get ready for a rush of seed orders. With the way groceries are increasing in price and the size of everything shrinking, I think folks will be wise to grow a nice big garden this year! I know we will, as usual. — Jackie
How do we order a seed catalogue?
Hi Jackie, this is coming in late, sorry. I just read this post and saw the way delivery guy left your catalogs. I’ve a suggestion for you. Get Will to build a wood box on low feet, seal it with weather proof sealant, have a fairly snug lid on it with a handle. I’d put cement blocks in there to anchor it. Set back from your mail box so the plows don’t hit it. Then in your instructions tell the delivery people to put things that will fit in there. We had a driver dump a box at the start of my husbands wheelchair ramp. I seen the delivery truck out the window and when no one came to the door I went to check. Maybe this might help. Happy New Year!
I’ll be anxiously awaiting the new catalog! I often think about slowing down and planting less as we grow older but these grocery prices convince me otherwise! Wow Mason will be driving! I remember meeting him when he was just a little guy. Time sure flies. Merry Christmas!
Waiting for the seed catalog and will be ordering even more this year. Talk about crazy food prices. Walmart bell peppers were 2.50 to 3.00 each and they looked to be in very poor condition and the local grocery they have been as high as 5.00 each. We have bags of them diced and dehydrated. A gold mine for sure!
Jackie,
Out hopi squash is turning white, are they still good and will keep through the winter. Thanks Bev
No covers at the table….
I’m not happy with fedex delivery methods either. We put a gate and railing around our front porch so packages could be put in a safe place to keep my dogs from destroying them. Would the fedex person open the gate and set it by the door? NO, it was put on the steps against the gate so I couldn’t open it without the package tumbling down the steps! They have no common sense. I did complain to the company so maybe they will change? HA!
Looks like Christmas was a big success at your house! It is such fun to watch the kids rip open packages. We had our extended family Christmas at my Sisters house on Christmas eve. There were 33 or 34 of us who were able to attend. Full house, for sure! My daughters and their families came home the day after Christmas for our celebration. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed each other so much. My middle daughter and her family live in Kentucky so we don’t see them as often as we would like and really cherish the time we get to spend with them. I have been thinking about my garden and how to make it more productive. I am looking forward to receiving the seed catalog and getting seeds started. I have poor light in my home for starting seeds and have been doing a method called winter sowing the past 3 years and have had great success with it. The prices of groceries and other goods is just unbelievable and as I live alone on a fixed income it is very concerning, especially since the price of things like insurance keep getting higher. Oh well, it is what it is. Im so glad you and Will had an enjoyable holiday. That rail Bill got you will be an even bigger blessing when you get your other knee done. I know you wont be using the steps for a while after, but when you do it will be a lifesaver! Prayers for a blessed week
It sounds like you had a wonderful Christmas too. It makes winter seem a lot shorter as well. We can’t complain, as we really haven’t had any “winter” yet, with temperatures in the thirties and forties.
I’m shocked at the rising prices in the grocery stores. One squash cost over $6. Holy cow, we have a fortune sitting in a pile in our dining room!!
Looks like you all had a great Christmas. The babies are precious. Thank you for the pictures all year long: and also, all the good advice on canning. I broke down and finally canned my leftover Christmas ham and it looks wonderful. And it was so easy. I look forward to all your posts. Especially in the winter, we mostly stay indoors and off the roads so a good book on “Ask Jackie” or a new post is always something that is a treat. I just got three new books written by you from Backwoods Home and I can’t wait to read them all. Stay safe and have a Happy New Year!
Isn’t canning that leftover ham wonderful? I’ve got to get at that too. We also love the ham and bean soup I can up, using the bone and a little of the small bits of meat.
I hope you enjoy the books!! Happy New Year!
We had a problem last winter with fedex leaving our packages wherever they felt like: in the ditch, under a tree, but not up at our house–a half mile driveway. Lazy bones. This winter is so much better!
Isn’t it though! It seems incredible to be having rain after Christmas. We won’t even have snow on the ground at New Year’s Day. I’m so ticked at FedEx!!
You hit the nail on the head, Jackie, about grocery prices. I expanded my garden last year, and who knows what I’ll do to it this coming year! I had a meat slicer on my Christmas list, for exactly the same reason—meat prices. My husband did get me the meat slicer. With horrible ingredients in so many foods, and in meats, I will cook up safe meats and now can make wholesome deli meat. I returned deli meat to the store when I realized I hadn’t taken care to read the meat ingredients: 3 kinds of sugar and a load of salt. My husband’s kidney’s are nearly on dialysis because of poor eating habits, and not reading ingredient lists on foods all our lives. Things are changing drastically in this house. All the more reason to grow our own. Thanks for such a wonderful Christmas update!!!
Yep. I turned into a label reading fanatic when I realized what stuff they were putting into our food. And, the more processed a food is, the more creepy stuff is in it! Holy Cow, who needs MSG in peanuts??? Or to buy irradiated meat? Yuck!! Home raised and home canned is the way to go!
Jackie..you are so right about having a garden and canning..in my area food prices more then doubled on most things..I love alone and still have a garden and put things up ..crazy world right now and it does not look it is getting better..you have a beautiful family
Of course, I think so too! I’m shocked at the prices in the stores. I mean SHOCKED! I looked at the meat counter and saw one steak that cost $21. I came home and kissed our cows on the lips!! And one apple cost $3.00??? Sure, inflation has ended…..I just saw a pink pig flying by too.
Yea for the gardens!!!
You need to have Will build you a large wood box. That way when a package comes delivery person can put in wood box. Be sure to mark it to put delivered packages in.
Last month mailman put packages on outside of our mailbox. Anyone driving down road could have stopped and helped themselves to a free package.
The way things are ,I canned more food this summer and keep buying more. I just feel like it is not enough. Looking at your storage, I know mine is not enough.
Happy New year.
Happy New Year
We have a plastic tote down there. But my flower bulbs still freeze and big shipments, like our seed catalogs are way too big to fit in any sized box. Good idea though. But, even in the tote, someone stole a box that was Will’s VA colon screening kit. Ha ha! THAT was a wonderful score for some thief!! Happy New Year!!
I love the pictures of your family! You sure have beautiful grandkids! Happy New Year!
Of course, we think they’re beautiful too! We have so much fun when we can get together. Happy New Year!
Looks like a wonderful Christmas Celebration for you and your family! Hoping for a Happy New Year for all of us. Looking forward to receiving my seed catalog. I got a new heavy duty rack for my pantry after my old one failed from to much weight! I’m having a ball reorganizing and taking inventory.
Yep, I remember when my wood shelves in the basement collapsed in the middle of the night. What a mess that was. Now, our pantry shelves are built of 2″ rough=sawn lumber with plenty of reinforcement. Isn’t it so much fun to go through your stuff? You always have forgotten all you have!
Your description of your Christmas Eve celebration made me smile. That is how it is supposed to be, FAMILY. Count your blessings.
You’re so right, Rob, as in Deuteronomy Chapter 28. A whole list of Blessings.
Oh yes. For sure!! Our wonderful family is our biggest blessing, and we have a whole lot of blessings, besides, too. We’re hugely grateful!!
What Beautiful Family gathering. so wonderful. your home is so nice and HOME ;it truly makes one smile and know how relaxed and comfortable you are together.
every family has their traditions, styles. for me, to see the love, gratitude and happiness is what means family.
Thank you for sharing with us all.
grandma an Melanie are the icing on the cake. mom gets to eat an not worry about her daughter:)
fed ex. what they, the delivery drivers must go through this time of year especially!. here ours do make every effort to deliver (last year was a different story!). hope the catalogs survived. we who receive them will enjoy them no matter their condition.
Happy New Year!
We’re so grateful to have such a wonderful family. And we sure enjoy being able to get together over a nice meal.
The catalogs survived, for the most part. The ones on the bottom got a little wavy from the wet ground but most were okay. Thank God! I’m glad I was only gone for an hour! It was raining and the ground was super wet.
Happy New Year!!
I’ve often commented that 98% of the year we remind small children to not rip paper. But on birthday and Xmas, rip away. Next fun time is when she learns to read and is in charge of handing out presents. Truth be told, my kiddos (in their 30s) still like to hand out the presents.
Xmas Eve was a cake walk compared to T-Day (less cleaning as mentioned in a prior post). Most food was heat and eat or thaw and eat as in the case of one of the desserts. That was a local purchase. And what wasn’t heat/thaw required little prep time before into the oven.
Rare time all of us were together, doesn’t happen very often despite most being local.
You’ll like the tea kettle for the wood stove. You’re not the only one who needs to black her stove. I oil mine up at the end of burn season. It looks brand new all summer though lol. We had a different steamer for a while but the kettle is easier (and safer) to fill. Our stove has a griddle lid so easier to move the tea kettle than the steamer.
We got almost .6 inch of rain – 2nd rainiest Xmas ever. Didn’t break the “high” record but did move into 3rd place. It is soggy and damp. Hoping to see a little bit of sun before the snow/rain mix hits later this week. I’m not getting a good feeling re: snow come late March/April in my area. May not be much of a spring.
Yep, it’s still raining here, although today is snowed a bit, but isn’t sticking. No complaints, as we usually have three feet of snow by now. This is making winter seem so much shorter. It feels more like spring than mid-winter!! I just hope we don’t go into drought this spring, though. Ugh!
I’m happy that we also didn’t have much house cleaning to do for Christmas, although now I’m on a roll, trying to clean up the seed area to get ready for our seed customers’ orders arriving. That’s always so much fun to see orders from so many people, all over the country, reading their little notes and nice letters too.
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