Scenes of Christmas Day part two

These are a few pictures of Christmas Day at our home. Craig was home so he and Jacob got up early and checked out the scene under the Christmas tree. Jacob soon began serenading us with Christmas carols in an attempt to get us up out of bed...presents needed to be opened! Of course the fire was lit, though somehow Santa neglected to put anything in the stockings. Hmmm, perhaps that had something to do with us not leaving out a snack for him.Before any present opening, the boys had to pose for the traditional first portrait of Christmas.
We went to church that morning, then returned home and started working on the feast for our family. I created my world famous bacon cheese grits bread, always a favorite.
The dough includes grits and cheese, and is then rolled out and bacon, more cheese, and red and green pesto are added.
The dough is rolled up "jelly roll fashion" and baked. Yum!
Here's a cross sectional view of the bacon cheese portion.
We had a huge gathering for dinner. I believe we had a total of 16 around the table. We were only missing our son Stephen and his wife Betsy and Craig's girlfriend Brooke in order for the scene to be complete. Stephen was due to fly in that night, but due to weather issues he was delayed.
After many activities Jacob and the girls slowed down for some evening story time.

Scenes of Christmas Day

We visited with my parents in Oak Ridge the day before Christmas. My sister Laura and her family made the trip to spend Christmas there, so it was a great reunion. Jacob spent part of the time performing Christmas carols on the ukulele while Kaley sang along.My nieces are precious and very photogenic. Sometimes they are moving so quickly that they are just a blur.
The girls left out a snack for Santa on Christmas Eve. I still can't figure out how Santa gets the presents into my parent house, as they chimney leads to a fireplace in the basement, not on the main floor.
The girls make happy Christmas sounds with their hand bells while checking out their stockings, which I imagine were filled will all sorts of goodies.
It's Christmas morning and time to open presents at my parents' house. We were not there but we have these pictures to share. Christmas morning is always more exciting when young kids are involved!
In the afternoon the gang from Oak Ridge came over to our house. We opened some more presents. Jacob was delighted to receive a variety of hot sauces. Since our return from Indonesia Jacob has been searching for a good hot sauce here.
Jacob had a great time with the girls. As the big kid he can toss them around...gently.
Kaley enjoys rides around the house and is quite adventurous to not hang on.
Craig joined the action and the group paused long enough for a picture in front of the tree. This is our "formal" tree with matching ornaments and white and red bows.
Here I am with my brothers and sister. That's Doug, Laura and Mark.

Christmas Eve Candlelight Worship at St. John's

If you are ever near Knoxville on Christmas Even and want to experience an incredible worship, come to St. John's! This year we held the candlelight services at 6:30 and 9:30 and both were packed to standing room only. Nancy and I served as greeters, and Craig saved us some great seats up front.Jacob stepped into the shoes of his older brother Stephen, taking on the role of the Bible bearer.
The St. John's sanctuary is decorated with two trees filled with white Chrismond ornaments, which were handmade by church members many years ago. The pews are topped by candles, and for the service everyone in the congregation had a candle of their own.
The music was incredible, with the organ and choir complemented by a trumpet and flute.
Shawn White, on trumpet, joins us for all major events and festivals. He's practically part of the family!
The church is decorated for the Christmas season with dozens (hundreds?) of poinsettia plants.
Christmas Eve is a "high mass", which means it is formal, including a full Gospel procession. Before the Gospel is read, the Bible is led by the crucifer and torch bearers down the steps into the center of the sanctuary.
Jacob as Bible bearer holds the big Bible over his head while walking down the steps. Thank goodness he didn't trip! The torch bearers are in front of him, while Pastor Steve gives him plenty of room before following. The Christ candle is lit in the middle of the Advent wreath, signifying that Christmas is here (almost!)
The group stops in the middle of the sanctuary for the Gospel reading.
We love the symbolism of the Gospel procession and the immediacy of the Gospel being read right in the middle of the congregation.

Christmas Eve Day

It's been a whirlwind of activity leading up to Christmas. Last night we held our Christmas "open house" where mostly church friends stop by for some fellowship and goodies. In the past days we have enjoyed Jacob's school band Christmas concert, the church children's Christmas pageant, the church choir Christmas concert (in conjunction with the St. Paul's Methodist Church), the church youth group party at our house, and many other activities. There is so much going on that we actually didn't make it to some of our usual events...but there is always next year. In this picture members of the youth group show off the presents they have ended up with. They did a gift exchange where each person brings a small gift, then they are opened one by one and participants can trade gifts with each other.

My entire family will be in town for Christmas, and our out-of-town sons will also be here. Craig arrived from Virginia on Thursday, and Reverend Stephen arrives late Christmas evening (after leading Christmas Day services in Amarillo, Texas).

We have been cooking and eating many special foods. There were so many cookies and sweets at school that I pretty much had to stop eating them for a few days just to "stabilize". Of course then I went back to enjoying them.

The Saturday before Christmas we drove for two hours up to Johnson City, Tennessee to visit with some old friends from college. They are so old that they have kids in college (unlike us, we have kids who have graduated from college!) Kim and Phil also have two daughters who are ballet dancers, and we went to see them perform in the "Nutcracker" ballet. It was very well done and quite beautiful, though not quite as exciting as seeing the two older boys play in a soccer match. This is a picture of Nancy and our college friend Kim.

Our neighborhood is decorated with lights on the houses, many Christmas wreaths with red bows, and also some pretty tacky looking inflatable figures in the front yards. Disclaimer: tacky is a judgement and what is tacky to some is beautiful for others. See the photo at the top of the post and make your own judgement.

A Thanksgiving Feast!

This is for those of you who have never experienced an American Thanksgiving dinner. Not all Americans enjoy a feast of food like this on Thanksgiving. Some have to work, some don't have the money to fix so much food, and some actually prepare and eat more than we do. It's quite a bit more food than we need to eat or even are comfortable eating...but it's tradition.

Even though Thanksgiving was being hosted by my mother and father, we spent several days preparing our dishes. Nancy fixed her famous green bean casserole, I baked several varieties of bread rolls, and Jacob baked a pumpkin pie (shown below) and also a pumpkin cheesecake.
When we arrived at my parents home my Mom and Dad were already busy cooking. They are a great team in fixing meals and also cleaning up.

The turkey was baking in the oven and my mother was starting to fix the gravy (sauce). Gravy is made with the fat drippings from the turkey, milk and a little flour. The stove is electric powered.

The turkey cooks for about four hours. It fills the home with a delicious scent which makes you very hungry. Finally the turkey was done; ready to come out of the oven.

Here's the cooked turkey. This one was about 7.5 kilos before it was cooked. The turkeys are sold in the store frozen or fresh (not frozen). If you buy a frozen turkey then you have to plan ahead as they take three or four days in the refrigerator to thaw out.

My Dad is the turkey chef. He likes to cook, just like Jacob and I do.

Meanwhile Jacob got a lesson from his Grandmother on how to make gravy. We encouraged him to pay attention because we want him to cook for us in the future.

Jacob jumped in and took charge of the mashed potatoes. Grandpa peeled and cooked them. Jacob just had to run a hand mixer through them to break the cooked potatoes up into small pieces and then mix them with butter and a bit of milk. Mashed potatoes are an important part of the Thanksgiving meal as you make a bowl out of them and fill it up with gravy.Dad let the turkey cool for a few minutes, then began scooping out the dressing or stuffing. This is made of crumbled bread, turkey broth, spices, celery, and ground beef. It is quite delicious!

Jacob enjoyed the best part of mashing the potatoes, which is licking off the beaters.

Dad continued working on the turkey, carving off slices of meat and putting them on a platter.

Jacob finished his mashed potatoes job by spooning them into a bowl, ready to be served.

Finally we sat down at the table. We were all very hungry. My parents already have their Advent calendar hung on the wall (it looks like a Christmas tree) even though Advent doesn't start for another week. They are ready!

Jacob is ready to eat! We were joined by a neighbor who lives near my parents. They invited him to join us when they learned he would be alone for the day.

Here's a closeup view of Jacob's plate. You may not believe this, but he ate two plates of food like this!

Jacob did declare himself to be "full" after the second plate. After laying down for a few minutes he was ready for dessert.
Here's proof of Jacob's eating. He even worked on one of the big turkey legs.
Dessert is an important part of the Thanksgiving feast and is sometimes a bit of a challenge after eating the huge main part of the meal. For our dessert we enjoyed two kinds of pie - pecan and pumpkin, and two cakes - pumpkin cheesecake and carrot.
Afterwards we went for a walk through the neighborhood to get a little exercise and let our food settle.

Hanging Out in Amarillo

These are travel photos from our recent trip to Amarillo for Stephen's installation. We started off at our favorite airport, McGhee Tyson in Knoxville. Unless you're stuck there for along time when you should be traveling, it's a great place to be. My bag of bread is in the background, unattended!
Flying out of Knoxville and westward across Tennessee on a clear day is delightful with many lakes, rivers and mountains to admire.
Here we are at the commuter terminal in Houston after a lengthy walk. It reminded me of a bus terminal, with many rows of seats and four or five doors with access to more than a dozen gates for flights.
Waiting for us at the Amarillo airport was none other than Stephen! What a thrill to see him operating in his new home town! We decided the Amarillo airport was just as nice as Knoxville, and both were quite a bit better than Houston.
We arrived at Stephen and Betsy's new home and were happy to see their "welcome home" sign, put up by members of their congregation for them to see when they first arrived.
The wind was whipping around the house and the banner was making a tremendous amount of noise. We took it down after listening to it for a few hours.
We had a few free hours on Saturday afternoon so we drove down to the Palo Duro Canyon for a quick tour. It's pretty impressive for a big hole in the ground. Stephen says that when they visited in July it was 110 F degrees on the floor of canyon. Sound brutal. We only had to contend with the wind and the blowing sand.
The interactive center at the canyon explained the era of each layer of rock in the canyon. Mysteriously there are no layers of rock from two time periods...where did they go? Yes, we drove on that little road that winds down the cliff.
The canyon floor was decorated with beautiful trees sporting yellow leaves. We're guessing they are elderberry trees but never got a local authority to confirm it for us.


There were many interesting rock formations, including this balancing act.
That night we dined at a local Mexican restaurant. My Dad and I ordered a beer and found out that they come in a big, big size.
It was a happy evening as we looked forward to the installation the next day.
On Sunday morning we discovered the waffle maker at the hotel made Texas shaped waffles. Many of the cowboys eating nearby wondered why I was taking a picture.
Here's a poster from the airport. They take their cattle seriously in Amarillo.
People really do wear black cowboy hats and sport silver cowboy belt buckles in Amarillo.
As we flew out of Amarillo the tributary fingers of the Palo Duro Canyon came into view.