Christmas Eve

I'm not supposed to be here right now.  This morning my family was supposed to wake up in a house high in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.  We were to have rolled in late last night, kissed my mother- and father-in-law hello, and tumbled into bed, tired after our 12- or 14-hour drive.

But we're home instead.  As always before we travel in snowy areas in winter, we watched the weather forecast.   And it just got worse and worse.  Yesterday we decided we'd better stay home.

It's disappointing to us all.  Christmas is a family time, and we have no family where we live.  During our married life, we've rarely lived near family.  We don't know the pleasure (or the pain) of frequent contact with parents, in-laws, siblings.  Christmas is a nice time to be together.  But not in snowy mountains in winter.  Maybe we should all move to Arizona.  Or New Zealand!

So it's a quiet Christmas Eve here. My shopping is done. I even managed to mail the little gifts my kids chose for their grandparents yesterday, so they won't be too late.  Wrapping is mostly done.   Today I will bake flan for tomorrow's dessert, and some sugar cookies - my kids like flan, but it's not a very traditional Christmas dessert and they like their traditions.

Some friends invited us to bring our lonely selves to them for Christmas dinner, but we really don't feel all that lonely and will have dinner at home.  The grocery store wasn't too bad yesterday, and there were still plenty of rib roasts, potatoes, and broccoli for our Christmas menu.  We might join our friends for dessert, taking our flan and cookies with us. 

Here is the broccoli casserole I'm trying this year.  It's quite different from my usual, which my mother-in-law gave me years ago. We'll see if we embrace this new one or stick with the standard.  Or trade off.

There are lots of posts in my brain and in my draft folder.  I always seem to have a blogging slump this time of year.  Of course I was busy preparing for travel and doing the usual Christmas preparations.  I hope to reconnect with old blogging friends and acquaintances in the new year.

But now it's time to bake, cook, watch a movie, and listen to some music!