Justin and I decided to open our gifts before church this morning, not having enough time to do so last night between services. Justin purchased a Christmas stollen for our breakfast which we enjoyed as the unwrapping was underway.
My Christmas stollen, from Publix
I can always count on Justin to help me 'clean up' with products from Bath and Body Works! He knows I very much like the hand sanitizers, body wash, foaming hand products, and this year, body spray! One particular bottle has pictures of Tuscany on the label, with the contents being a lemoncello-scented soap. Gorgeous!
Justin got me two cardigan-styled sweaters, his theme of gift giving is keeping his mama warm (just like my mom!). Here I am laughing as I modeled the burnt orange one, worn over my caftan which Justin says looks like Qadalfi. He had this sweater in mind for wearing at my desk as it gets cold sitting next to the windows in the winter. The fabric is so soft, feels cozy to the touch.
When this present arrived via FedEx, he couldn't stand it and HAD to give it to me right away. This is a microwavable scented heat pad which wraps around the neck with moist heat. He said he got this for when my neck/shoulders get achy when I'm at my desk. The scent is quite soothing, as is the moist heat. It goes perfectly with the color of my new cardigan, too!
Among the items I got Justin for Christmas were a few things he had on his Amazon wish list. He is holding a Darth Vader bobble-head character which he will display on the shelf I got him for supporting/raising the height of his TV. He got to open the shelf early because when it arrived, he received the delivery and the picture of what was inside was printed on the box. Surprise ruined! Jesse helped get the TV up on it the other night when he ate dinner with us. I also got Justin deflectors for around the windows on his truck, three t-shirts and Packer shirt (Nelson's), socks for work, candy and nuts.
Justin had mentioned in passing that he didn't have a case for his shotgun so I got him one. I also had a picture of The River House framed for him (one for Jesse, too, as it's owned by his step-dad). We will hang it in the kitchen with the one of Whitey's, adding The Palace watercolor plus the new one of The River House from the water, all three painted by Beth Haizlip. Might need some help getting them hung because of it being an exterior wall, concrete block.
Another 'warm' item he got me was a pair of iGloves where some of the fingertips are made to allow for using the iPhone while wearing gloves. You can't quite make that out on the pointers and thumbs but I should be able to even type while wearing them.
Here is one of Justin's t-shirts from our home town, also got him a red one. See our soda stockpile in the foyer?
I had the privilege and delight of seeing my friend, Kelly, who was down here from N. IL to see her son and his family. He is in the Navy, stationed at St. Mary's, GA. Her hubby and she wanted to worship on Christmas Day so came from the Southside where they were staying, to worship at GS. I am so glad they did, as I hadn't seen her in the flesh since Linda and I met Kelly in 2007 at the Women's Leadership Conference. Kelly walked up to our table and asked if she could join Linda's and my 'holy huddle'. We hit it off right then and there, and thanks to Facebook, have remained in touch.
We had just over 20 folks in worship, with Lord's Supper served, with four of those being guests, including one couple from Victory. Since I am normally not here for Christmas services, it just really hit me how sad the attendance was for our candlelight service last night and our Festival this a.m. Before the service Justin and Michael went around and gathered up the expired luminaries from the night before, working up quite a sweat (in the 80's here!)
As Justin finished the ham, I began carrying stuff to the table in the dinette. We had two Jell-Os, cranberry sauces, salad, olives and pickles, rolls. and spiced apples.
As we ran out of space for our dishes Justin remarked, "We should have probably eaten at the big table..." On the far left see the iPad propped, ready to play "It's a Wonderful Life" for us as we ate. We had yams with marshmallow and pecans plus our wrapped ham and apple cider sauce. Yum!
Here is the ham after being sliced. The crescent dough could have baked a bit more but the exterior was nicely browned. The sauce really made it, though. Because we were so full after our meal, we waited to have our pumpkin pie later when we finished watching the movie. We needed an intermission to sleep off our heavy meal! It was a wonderful day, a quiet one, to go with our 'Wonderful Life'!
