Christmas in Central Illinois

I picked up the super duper chocolate chocolate “Christmas eggs” at Flesor’s on Sunday in preparation for our annual trek to central IL to share Christmas with our daughters, our youngest grandsons and our son in law. I way over cooked (amount) chicken and noodles, made a really scrumptious snickers cake, and took along some chili to have on Friday night. Leah arrived on the train and we all made it safely into the house before the heaviest of the snow and there we stayed, covered in a thick blanket of snow, until today. I find waiting for Santa with a grandson as exciting as it ever was in my childhood, and I love those magical years. H literally shuddered with joy when he finally scratched off a bit of paper from his Santa gift and found it was EXACTLY what he asked for. We had so much fun watching him and also watching the Q-ball tearing bits of paper off of his presents. As usual, for a toddler, boxes and paper are as delightful as anything.

Rayne is a terrific cook and she prepared her first turkey ever-- superb. She made potatoes called glory hallelujah potatoes that live up to their billing, and you can shout glory hallelujah and eat your way to a heart attack with the cream and butter laden delights. I drizzled her moist turkey with her homemade cranberry sauce which really is so much better than canned. She made her signature cheesecake and I had a small slice of that. We nibbled all weekend on what Larry and I have come to call Christmas salad, which is the mix of peanuts, m&m’s and raisins, well, it does have green in it.

We played playmobile pirates, beyblades, and Aunt Leah spent loads of time playing with H, but he nearly broke down when we left, I think he was really emotionally fried by then and had been so good. Attempts at family pics were met with resistance by the boys, but I am sure a couple of decent ones were captured by all three photographers. Leah will be on the train to Chicago in about an hour, I am so thrilled she makes a point to join us for this special day. It really is a lovely loving time.