Christmas a Little Early

Friday was divided between cooking at home in preparation for the S. family Christmas celebration and dad's house with furnace stuff.  Somehow the potato salad, bread, raspberry jello, and Christmas cookies were made.  However, the cookies did not get frosted.

  Frosting was whipped-up and colored on Sat. morning and all the stuff was loaded into the Element for the two hour trek to hubby's sister's place.  First we stopped at mom's house to give her insulin shot.  Then we went to dad's house to make sure the furnace was still running.  Then the drive south began.  It was snowing, and the salt trucks were working well.  They were working so well that we stopped at a store and bought three gallons of windshield washer fluid.  We used at least one gallon on the way there.

Once there, a grand time was had by all catching up on what everybody has been doing since Thanksgiving.  For the niece and nephews, that seems to involve playing a lot of video games and watching You-tube videos.  So many activities these days are not very group friendly.  We had a tasty dinner of ham, green bean casserole, bread, raspberry jello, and potato salad.  For first desert, there were cookies.  My niece has been doing a lot of homework baking for home-ec. class.  She brought gingerbread people; they were quite tasty.  The cutout cookies were a frost-your-own project this year.  Although the pretty piped decorations were missed, one nephew seemed to like being able to put a giant glob of frosting on a cookie and then load it up with as many red-hots as it would hold.  Sparky the dog enjoyed sitting on as many laps as possible and giving people doggy kisses.  Second desert was candy cane pie.  Then it was time to leave.  Hubby topped off the windshield washer fluid, and we gave ma-in-law a ride back to the assisted living place because it was getting to be her bedtime anyway.  The ride back north went well with a short break to top off the washer fluid yet again.  We stopped at dad's house, and thankfully his furnace had not quit while we were away.  We made it home safe and sound with only one gallon of windshield washer fluid to spare.

Anyone need a little leftover potato salad?