It's Boxing Day!

After what I hope was a wonderful Christmas day for you, as it was for me, today it's time to celebrate Boxing Day! No, I'm not British nor do I have any connection to anything British, but I just like the idea of keeping the celebration going!  I guess, Boxing Day for the Brits is the day to give presents to everyone, not on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning as we do in the States.  If anyone knows a better explanation of Boxing Day, please feel free to correct me.

So, what am I doing to celebrate Boxing Day?  Not anything exciting, I can tell you.  After the flurry of activity over the past few days, I am ready to work my way back into my old routine, but I still embrace the option of continuing to celebrate!  I didn't take the time to post over the last couple of days, so I guess I'll update you now.  

I actually managed to make up all three kinds of "Barb's Balls" and get them packed up in their tins. Jo spent Christmas Eve with us and she took her tin with her when she left to go to my niece's place for Christmas afternoon. I expect her cookies are just about all gone by now. And I have the BIG tin of balls ready to go to Milwaukee with us tomorrow.  I've refilled this tin several years in a row--the kids always make sure to return it to me so I can fill it up again!  

You can see it's a large tin--measures 10" in diameter and it's 4" tall.  I usually pack it full with 3 layers of ball cookies, but this year I didn't make as many cookies so it's only 2 layers full. But still plenty for everyone, I think.

Let's see, what else did the holidays hold for us?  Well, as I said, youngest daughter, Jo, came home Saturday afternoon and we made our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of Choucroute Garni pictured below. No, that's not my pic--I stole it from Wikipedia.

I began making this German/Alsatian dish over 30 years ago in protest to all the Scandinavian lefse and lutefisk made in the area where we were living at that time.  For some reason, the kids as well as Don and I, really enjoy this dish and have never given up having it on Christmas Eve.  However!  As I searched for a recipe to link with this picture, I learned that I've been leaving out the wine all these years. I guess I'd better correct that, right?  I vow, in future, I will cook this food in a liberal amount of white wine and it'll be ever more delicious that before. And if it isn't, we won't care. :)

Before dinner, we watched my favorite Christmas movie, A Christmas Story,  

And after dinner we opened the board game based on the movie, which I'd been given several years ago but never got around to playing.  Well, there's a reason this board game isn't a best seller. It is so complicated!  The three of us tried to figure out how to play it and gave up after a couple of rounds.  We took out the trivia cards and took turns asking each other the questions and moving our tokens around the board.  We all agreed that this is a game that belongs in the Goodwill box, and that's where it is right now.

On Christmas Day, I fixed a baked egg brunch dish and shortly after, Jo took off, leaving Don and I to a quiet and peaceful house.  I spent some time in the sewing room, making 4 more little quilted ornaments to take with us on our post-Christmas visit to the kids and grandkids in Milwaukee.  I still have to finish them up but that won't take but an hour or so.  We leave tomorrow and return the following day and we'll be swimming with the kids in the hotel pool, and feasting on the finger foods that Erin and I are assembling for a "grazing" dinner in the hotel room.  And, of course, we have Christmas presents for all of them to open--I hope the boys like the toys we got them! My husband picked them out so they're sure to be a hit with the other two little boys.  :)  Just kidding!

This afternoon, I also want to get out the king sized blue and white log cabin quilt top and figure out if I should put a border on it or not, get the backing and batting ready and make a reservation to use the tables at the Community Center to sandwich it up.  I'd like to get it quilted and finished in time to take it to Erin and Dan on our way to Alabama at the end of January.

That's what my day looks like so far.  How about yours?  Will you be giving out presents or staying home and enjoying the gifts you have?