Whew....

Well, the presents are opened (I think it took a whopping 15 minutes from start to finish!). The trash is mostly picked up. The turkey is in the oven (since it will take about 5 hours, and we want to be eating around 2, welllllll...it *is* a 20+lb bird). The casseroles were made yesterday, the dough for the crescent rolls is rising in front of the fireplace, the cake is frosted and on the stand, I've got the pie dough just about ready to go into the pan. Let's see...I turned the crock pot back on for the green beans for El Husbando. I need to devil the eggs, set up the veggie tray, and get the casseroles coming to room temp. Oh. And the rolls need rolling and shaping up.

I've gotten a second load of dishes done this morning, already, and I'm on load two through the washer, too (the children were given a ton of clothing, and it all had to be sorted and washed asap, before it ended up sneaking in with a load and staining everything). El Husbando had a rough night (thanks to the weather affected back pain), and so he is laying down for a nap. I'm mostly keeping an eye on the twins and the bread dough, and trying to keep the fire going just right.

Hopefully, the weather that slammed us yesterday hasn't caught too many of you in its grip. We're still locked up tight here, although #1 went out and pranced about, wearing a dress, tights, pants over the tights and under the dress, some of her daddy's heavy military socks over the tights, rain boots, a coat, gloves....she wanted to go out, so she got to also bring in a bunch of firewood (wetish, but it is drying off in front of the fire (plus there's plenty of heat in there, and it still burns pretty well).

For all that the sun is out and shining, we'll be lucky to see 26 degrees today, so we'll likely be keeping close to home for a while yet. No chance of my going anywhere today or tomorrow. And possibly Sunday, but we'll see. We were supposed to have some friends come over to visit tomorrow, for desserts and coffee. I'll have to call them this afternoon and see if they are going to risk it, or not (they only live two miles away, but it is over some rough roads in good weather/conditions).

I'm tired already, but we'll have to see if I can get a nap later today. Unless El Husbando's back clears up, I'll be pulling another "all-dayer" :-) Maybe I can manage to go to bed earlier tonight.
Our company from up north won't be coming--they got hit with the weather, and would be driving straight through the worst of it, to come down here. No thanks. No sense risking it, as much as we'd have loved to have seen them. So it will be a nice, relatively quiet (well, five children and quiet...lol) weekend...

God bless, and I pray your Christmas was a beautiful one. Gifts may be few, but the best gift of all, came wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.