Christmas eve ...

We had the best Christmas eve

Early in the day Johnny, Jake and I stayed busy putting

the final touches on the new kitchen.

Then it was shower and dress to go over to our brother-in-laws for

an open house. We stayed there from 4 to 5:00

then home to get ready for our family dinner

Besides our kids coming over, we also had Jacquelyn's in laws, Lynne and Tom

and good friends Joe and Melissa

The menu was.....

London Broil

salad

rolls

roasted potatoes

fresh lima beans

and a dessert we call "Daddys Dessert"

we call it that because Johnny makes it.....haha!

and here's a few pics from our evening......

Lynne and Melissa helping get dinner ready

Gabe and Maddox showing off their new Christmas eve PJ's

Jacquelyn and Melissa waiting to open presents!

and here's Joe and Lynne watching the very

pathetic Dallas game!!

haha....I'm just now noticing how serious we all

look as we load up our dinner plates!

this is "Daddy Dessert"

it has vanilla nabisco cookies, vanilla pudding, butter pecan ice cream,

cool whip, heath candy bars

and it is sooooo wonderful

I think now I need a bigger den!!

here's Jake trying out his new air popcorn popper!

after dinner and presents, we played cards until about midnight!

we sure had a good time.....

later.....

Big Table ...

One of my goals when re-modeling the kitchen

was to be able to seat a lot of people at the table

there are 10 of us

and here's my table getting ready to be

set for breakfast Christmas morning

later.....



Early Christmas ...

We always have Christmas with my family early so that

Christmas day isn't so hectic for everyone

this year everyone had crazy schedules so we had to get together

early on the 17th....for breakfast!

we quit buying gifts for each other a long time ago and started

doing the crazy gift exchange!

My sister has a really big house with a full basement and since

there are 27 of us plus a few friends that come, it's the perfect place

for us to get together!

it's fun and lots of laughs

you know how people always stick their tonques out for pictures...

haha......well check out my mom...she's always in style

here's her and Johnny eating breakfast

here's Nicole and Maddox enjoying their breakfast

Maddox opening a present.....

Looks like Jake likes his gift......but will he get to keep it?? haha...

here's Mallory and Matt explaining to Memaw the correct

way to pronounce faux....it was funny but guess you had to
be there!

We really laugh a lot when we're all together

such fun!

It might have been early but it was still lots of fun!

 

later.....

Chocolate cake ....

One of my many memories of Christmas as a child was

the chocolate cake with fudge icing that my mom always made

I don't remember leaving cookies for Santa....we left

him chocolate cake!

and if we were really lucky, mom let us have a slice while it

was still warm from the oven with the sugary fudge icing.

So this year I decided to make one for our family

But I forgot to buy shortening and instead used butter ....

which is not a good substitute in some recipes!

because this cake just fell apart

really.......fell totally apart!

In all of my years of baking I have never had this happen....or at

least I don't remember this happening! haha....

later.....

Kitchen re-model ... part 22

they finished enough so that we could use our kitchen

during the Christmas holiday

we still have some trim work to do

and still need to paint

but I have asked the contractor to please wait until

I go back to work on Jan 3rd.

We also did not pick out a backsplash for 2 reasons...

one...there's too many to choose from!

and two....I just really needed to see it all together before I

could make a decision

so here's some pics.....and I guess it will be

a few weeks before I can show the final pictures

here's the hutch....keep in mind, we still have to

paint the walls and trim

that looks really bad because when they tore the

old chair rail out, it took sheet rock with it!

we will be putting up new chair rail



later......

Kitchen re-model ... part 21

I thought we were going to be done today but no go

I guess tomorrow

It is 9:00 pm and the electrician is still here working

I think they may be afraid I'll have a breakdown if they don't hurry up!!

the plumber needs to do a couple of things tomorrow

the cleaning person is coming in the morning

then I'll start moving things back in to the kitchen

we still have to get the crown molding on the hutch installed

still need to paint

and some trim along the floor......

but we're just about there and it's so beautiful it just

makes me want to cry!!!

awww .... my big beautiful sink!

we will not be painting until after Christmas

the window trim will be painted white

later....

Kitchen re-model ... part 20

I have been getting pretty stressed out over the kitchen

I just want it finished for Christmas

And I don't like the pace the contractor is taking

today he finally admitted that he is disappointed in the electrician/plumber

he is using because he is not very dependable.

that's an understatement!

don't get me wrong......he is doing excellent work but at

a snails pace!

so today he told Johnny that he promises the electrical and plumbing

will be all finished by end of day Friday

and to make up for my stress, he is hiring a housekeeper to

clean my house! yay on that one!

the granite came today and I am soooo in love!!!

this is the little sink on the island or as I refer to it the "Jacquelyn sink"

we have not put the new frig in there yet

this is looking in from the dining room.......you can see the crown

molding going up and the new arch that has now been sanded down

and this is looking straight in from the dining room

the window trim you see will be painted white

but it will be after Christmas before we can paint

and this shows the open cabinet shelf for the microwave



so there ya go.....it's coming along

let's keep fingers crossed we have Christmas eve

dinner in the new kitchen!!

later.......

Kitchen re-model ... part 19

we're getting close

the floor is down now

on Monday and Tuesday they will finish up the

electrical and plumbing

the granite goes in on Wed

they sand, stain and poly the floors starting Thursday

here's a few pics......I think

the arch turned out beautiful....though they still

need to sand it some



all day today I just kept saying...one more week, one more week!

later......

Kitchen re-model ... part 18

here's the lineup for the rest of the work

• Electrical work started on Friday and will resume on Monday
• Sheetrock work should start on Tuesday
• Wood floor installed on Wed. We'll wait on having it stained and finished as the granite is due to arrive on either the 9th or the 12th.
• then they will finish the floors and we'll have a good week for them to dry

I just hope we can stay on schedule and not stray too much

I am on vacation the last 2 weeks of December and would like

to use that week before to get the house back in order

looks like we might have to wait until after Christmas to

have the kitchen/dining room painted

later......

Kitchen re-model ... part 16

The support beam for the load bearing wall that we removed

was installed on Tuesday

then they could finally take out the studs that were left

the pic below is looking from the kitchen into the dining room

it shows the support beam......and no more wall



and this is looking from the dining room into the kitchen

more progress....so that's good

later.....

Kitchen re-model ... part 17

This is how you live when your kitchen is

under construction....



I know, it's not pretty

later.....

Kitchen re-model ... part 15

I know the re-model takes awhile but

the mess, having no kitchen....well, it does start getting to you

I told Johnny I just need some Christmas in my life

so when I came home from work the other day

this is what I came in to....

so sweet

later.....



Kitchen re-model ... part 14

We're making progress

the cabinets arrived and filled the kitchen.......all 28 boxes!

the cabinet guy worked all of Thanksgiving weekend

installing the cabinets

and wow, they started looking so good

he finished up on Sunday with the crown molding and the hardware

and wow...that's like the tiara for the cabinets!!

we were missing the crown molding for the hutch so

need to get that ordered

later......