Christmas

Susie gave me the link to a blog and I just checked it out. http://www.yourhomebasedmom.com/ This woman sounds perfect. I have to admit that I may have growled when I read about her perfect Christmas. We decorated our tree on the 23rd. We got it on the 12th. It was the Monday night it poured rain and it took a few days for it to dry out. I never got the little village out. I wrapped presents, mostly stuffing things into bags at 11p.m. on Christmas Eve. I lost the Gift Cards for our gifts and found them Christmas day while cleaning out my purse and waiting for Matt to call. I snagged the very last bag of hash browns for cheesy potatoes at Bashas on Friday evening for our Christmas dinner. There was a terrible juice mishap that soggied up some of our appetizers before Christmas dinner. I forgot to chill the "Princess" water until Christmas morning (our daughter only drinks bottled water, so therefore, we now call it "Princess" water). Our Christmas was not as well executed as yourhomebasedmom's, but it was great none the less. We got to talk to our son in Honduras for 70 glorious minutes. Here is how it worked. He called after what seemed like an eternity after the planned noon phone call. It was maybe closer to 1p.m. They had gone to lunch and walked the 15 minute walk home. He said that he could talk for five minutes and then he would have to hang up and call again. He could talk for five more minutes and then would have to hang up and then he could talk for an hour. An hour and ten minutes has never gone by so fast for me before. He sounds great and seems happy. He is outside San Pedro Sula in a town called Jerusalen. By Planeta, which is by LaLima. La Lima is the only one of those other than San Pedro Sula that I can find on a map. He has a companion from Costa Rica now who is 28 yrs. old (big age span....a 19 yr. old greenie and a 28 yr. old with one month left) and whose total English consists of "What's up dude?" Then Matt gave us his 19 yr. old cook's name and my daughter is now friends with her on Facebook. Still unbelievable to me the connections that Facebook can render. We will only be able to communicate with her using Google translate. So my none bean loving son in the U.S. loves beans in Honduras. He loves Baleadas, which are like a taco on a flour tortilla, with scrambled eggs and beans and a crema or soft cheese or sour cream like thing on it. He told me that name but I have forgotten it. I will have to google lest I guess and say something embarrassing. We also learned that he ate two pounds of M&M's that I sent him in about two hours. The celebration for Christmas in their town or in Honduras was on the 24th. He said that the 25th was like an ordinary day. On the 24th there were fireworks and tamales fed to them at every appointment that they went to. We had a great visit with him and the blessings of his serving a mission are apparent every day.

So this season I have discovered some amazing new recipes which I will share with you tomorrow and I plan on checking the new grocery ads tomorrow and hope to make a budget menu out of them. Hope that you all had a Merry Christmas.