Merry Christmas & Crazy Kids

The Whole DeMasellis Clan

This has got to be one of the oddest Christmases we've ever had. This is the first year that we were not all together on Christmas morning. Since Andrew is home on leave he is dividing his time between home and PA. Brooke's family gets equal time; although it's by no means equal. We actually are getting the better end of the deal. As part of his "exodus" (military term for vacation) Drew is required to "do" HRAP (hometown recruiting...something, something). He was obligated to report Dec. 22nd, 23rd, and 24th and then again next week on the 29th, 30th and 31st. So he and Brooke will be back sometime either Sunday or Monday.

Drew & Brooke

Our holiday has been a bit disjointed. Tuesday night we celebrated Christmas with my side of the family. Then Wednesday morning we celebrated Christmas with Andrew and Brooke before they took off for Pennsylvania. Last night we went to church for a very short service and then off to our friends house for some Christmas eve food and fellowship.



Well, it was a tad of a disaster due to me. I offered to bring a bean dip to share but when I purchased all the ingredients I was certain that I already had refried beans at home...not. Do you know that there is virtually no stores open on Christmas eve at 8pm that sell refried beans. After much sliding around (the roads were getting bad) I opted for Hormel chili with beans. I then assembled the whole "mess" at my friends house (much to her dismay I'm sure). Although my husband really liked it I thought it was rather gnarly.


I also had all the gifts wrapped last night even tho I was frequently interrupted by a "dinging" on my computer from some unnamed person attempting to chat with me.

I can only count on one hand how many times in my kids life that I've had all the gifts wrapped ahead of time and wasn't up to all hours of the night wrapping. I even had everything under the tree.

It was actually a nice leisurely time this morning. Since Andrew the early riser was not here none of us were up before 8am; it was a nice change...lol.


After the present exchanging (Jordon "played" Santa and doled everything out in a nice systematic fashion)

our oldest son Brandon, his wife Bekka and our "grand-dogger" Zoe, came over.


I proceeded to make a DeMasellis favorite; creamed beef....yummmmmm! We also had biscuits, hash browns, fried eggs made by Mr. D (he's a better egg maker than me) and orange juice. The finality of the meal came when Mr. D proceeded to make some rather funny comments (for the life of me I cannot even think what they were now) which caused Brandon to spew orange juice all over the table...AHHHHHHH. Well, at least we were all done eating by then and the butter was the only casualty.

The clean up began and so did the arm wrestling.

Then the new wii games were pulled out and the competitions began. We are a very competitive family....no one likes to lose and some of us are better losers than others...cough, cough... Brandon.

Caitlin and Jordon were trying out Jordon's new ipod docking station (gee how high can we blare it....they asked) while signing (not be be confused with singing) Christmas songs. Then there was chatting, texting and phone calls galore. With all the computers we have throughout the house, much communicating was going on all over; living room, dining room, office, etc.



Finally I've made my contribution to the family dinner later today at my sister-in-laws. Rosa Maria Salad (a cross between Ambrosia & rice pudding) and a cheese ball; nom, nom.






We will be having sandwiches and I'm sure all kinds of other goodies as well.


Haystacks, fudge, peanut butter blossoms.....yummmyyyy!!








Well, I hope all of you had as much fun as we did. Families can add a lot of dynamics to a holiday but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Mom