A Christmas Story - The recap and proof there is a Santa Claus

When we left off Christmas Eve day, I was preparing the servingware used to deliver Santa his treats at our house. The real action with this stuff takes place after a trip up to my wife's father's family Christmas.

We usually celebrate Christmas on several different occasions. Kids love it. I think I drive to much. Someday, I hope to find a happy middle ground. Until then...sigh.

The trip up to OhCountess' grandparents house is always filled with fun and food. After indulging in far too much food, we adjourn to the basement were the gifts are passed out by the kids. This is a pretty big deal because this is a pretty big family.

Part way through passing out the gifts, Santa shows up every year! He's such a good fella. All the grandkids get presents from Santa, even us almost 40 somethings with kids. Loads of fun!

When it's time for the hour long drive home, we pack up the kid's loot in the minivan and head back. I must admit that this year, my wife and FIL got me a great surprise of a present. For those of you in the south, and not even necessarily the deep south, you might not appreciate this, but for all you upper Midwest guys; they got me insulation for the attic in my garage! What a great present! I'm now saving up for the furnace that goes in there.

When I built the house, we installed the duct work, thermostat wires, gas line and electricity. All that's missing is the furnace unit itself. A few more poker tournaments, and I should have it. BTW - we got the insulation installed yesterday. Takes about an hour with 3 guys, one of which is named Grandpa and is watching the kids. Thank you Grandpa!
Once we get home and just before the little one slips into extreme deep sleep, we gotta get things ready for Santa. Remember, the bowel, plate and cup?

I'm sharing with you a few action shots of the girls getting it ready.

Seemed to me like OhPrincess2 was taking charge this year. I think she really wanted to make sure everything went just right!

We've got carrots for the reindeer.

There's cookies and milk for Santa.

I'm eyeing up that big box containing the rest of the cookies. There are spritz cookies in there. Anyone else sometimes wonder if those are a Class 1 Narcotic?

By mid January I'll have the shakes. Why do those cookies only get made once a year?

The girls did a great job of getting it ready!

They even allowed me one nice shot all posed and smiling.

This wasn't the first take. Getting them both smiling is always a trick.

We have very strict rules in our house in regards to Christmas morning. No one is allowed to leave the 2nd floor of the house until Mom and Dad are ready to get out of bed. OK...Mom is ready to get out of bed.

There was that year a while back when OhPrincess1 got that Barbie Talking Townhouse for Christmas at Grandma's house and someone thought it would be a good idea if I had that set up and ready to go Christmas morning. I'd swear there was a thousand 1 mm square stickers to put on. 3:30 AM that thing finally was done. I'm not bitter.

All in all, the kids got far too many toys. I ate far too much food but we had a blast following Santa using NORAD's tracking tool. It was working fabulously on my iPhone.

When mom gave the green light to head down stairs we got an immediate status report on the state of Santa's treats. THEY WERE GONE! OMGoodness! There are little bits of carrots left with teeth marks!

OhPrincess1 was happy to report that Santa is also a cookie dunker too! We here at the OhCaptain residence love to dunk our cookies in milk.

I present to you a close up of Exhibit A.

These are the carrots left for the reindeer. You can clearly see that they were indeed eaten. Several of them have teeth marks.

Exhibit B.

The milk cup. There was definitely something going on this cup last night. Look at the bits of cookies stuck to the sides and bottom of the cup. Well? Still not convinced?

Exhibit C.

Crumb, crumbs and more crumbs. We all know what a huge hurry Santa is in on Christmas eve. He ate these so quickly that he left quite the pile of crumbs. Mom and Dad were certainly grateful that Santa kept the crumbs to the plate, a little on the table, a bit more on the chair. OK. Santa wasn't really that neat.

The rest of Christmas morning we spent with just our family. We exchange gifts just between the four of us. At some point, someone notices that beside a few presents under the tree for the kids, Santa filled our stockings to the brim. More chocolates and goodies for EVERYONE!

Later on, we packed up the minivan and headed back to our home town to celebrate with my family. More food. More gifts (all of them fabulous!) and having my wife watch "A Christmas Story" for the first time. Yes, I was shocked. She know understands the lamp and the "put your eye out" jokes I sometimes mutter.

Christmas is a wonderful time of year. On Friday, we had one more Christmas celebration. My MIL and boyfriend, my SIL and niece came to our house. Ah! No driving. In exchange for the car keys, I took my first crack at roasting a turkey. I've cooked many things in my life, but never roasted a turkey. Being the geek that I am, I turned to King Geek Cook #1, Alton Brown, and prepared the bird "Good Eats" style. Here's Part 1...truly inspirational stuff.



But tomorrow, I go back to work. A three day week and then it's New Years. Another forced day off for us. I haven't decided if there will be more time off or not. Maybe, maybe not. I do know that I'm starting to look forward to a life returning to a bit more routine. I have things I need to be writing about. I went to Vegas not too long ago but returned to the real world too busy to write about it.

I hope all your holidays were spectacular and the time with your family was rewarding and revitalizing.

What was your Christmas like? Has Alton Brown saved your meal? Could there be a more perfect show for the geek that likes to cook? Is it possible for me to continue writing questions?

Happy Holidays everyone!