Christmas 2008 at Eric and Sharlene's house, with family and friends ...

Christmas, 2008 at our house was many days in the making, as we had many things to do before the big day itself. Check out some of the many things we had to do in advance to make the big day happen, including:

Photo: Our Christmas cats, enjoying the holiday before presents are placed under our decorated Christmas tree.

Photo: Casey's cat, "Jett," sleeps on the very computer that brings this web site to life, on the Internet. Is there something wrong with this picture?

* Decorate the outside of the house with Christmas lights and other decorations, courtesy of Tim (thanks!)
* Purchase a real Christmas tree, upon Casey's insistence, as she thought that would be the appropriate thing to do this year. Normally, we use an artificial tree, but not this year, as Casey wanted the real thing.

Photo: Casey prepares appetizers, as Sharlene works in the background to make sure that our Charistmas dinner is perfect.

Photo: Sharon takes Casey's photo, as family friend Tara looks on and wonders..

* Decorate the Christmas Tree. Sharlene and Casey spent a whole afternoon decorating the thing. Geeez!

* Grocery shopping! Sharlene and Casey performed that task several days in advance, to mimimize the crowd factor, and to allow the turkey to thaw.

Photo: LauriLynn, baby Wyatt, Kaylene, Tara and Sharon enjoy Christmas in our decorated-for-Christmas living room.

Photo: Tara and Sharon pose for my digital camera, in our living room. I love taking photos of beautiful women on Christmas!

Photo: Nate and LauriLynn relax, as she holds Sharon's baby boy, Wyatt.

* Lets see, how many hours, and/or days did we spend wrapping presents?

* Food factor: Three days before Christmas, Sharlene and Casey started the preparations for what was to be a delicious, holiday feast.

Photo: My father-in-law, Gary, and Sharlene's mom, Donna, enjoy our Christmas dinner.

* I set up the extra table in the kichen, and brought out the roasting oven from the storage under the stairs. That was my contribution to Christmas dinner. Then, I popped the top on what was to be the first of many draught beers for the day. I had made a pledge to my wife not to watch any football, and I kept my pledge, although I did a bit of web surfing to check football scores.

Photo: Christmas dinner at our house, as everybody pigs out to get their fair share of the dinner. Considering the sorry state of the nation, and the economy, we considered ourselves blessed to enjoy such a feast.

Photo: Sharlene cuddles Sharon's baby Wyatt; chalk him up as another grandson.

Food, friends and fun... that's what Christmas is all about at our house. Not to mention that we celebrate the birthday or our Lord Jesus Christ on Christmas.

Sharlene and Casey spent three days in the making of Christmas dinner. Appetizers included tortilla chips and corn chips, which are the favorite of our family, deviled eggs, a plate of sliced cheese, and sliced pastrami. Dips? How about guacamole, Sharlene's famous crab dip, fresh salsa, not to mention the spicy cheese dip, which is always in demand. Then there was the veggie plate, consisiting of tomatoes, celary, broccoli, carrots, and cauliflour. Of course there was the ranch dressing for dip. After the appetizers, who had room for dinner? Most of us!

Photo: Classic Christmas 2008 dinner photo, from left to right: Gary, Donna, Sharlene (partially hidden) Casey, Tim, Nate, LorrieLynn, Kaylene (fussing, face hidden from the camera) Sharon, and family friend Tara.

Photo: Oy boy! My plate of candied sweet potatoes, Casey's famous green beans, ,mashed potatoes, gravy, turkey stuffing, and finally... Sharlene's juicy and delicious roast turkey. Such a feast!

Our Christmas dinner... what more can I say, except it was delicious. Sharlene and Casey spent all day making dinner. The main course was turkey, stuffed with Sharlene's delicious stuffing, with a side dish of Sharlene's mashed potatoes, which are the best mashed potatoes that I've ever eaten. Fresh turkey gravy, made from the turkey neck and the innards accompanied the meas, plus Casey's fantastic green bean cassarole. Baked sweet potatoes, topped with brown sugar, rolls, butter, and lots of beer and wine... what a Christmas dinner! Simply... delicious...!

Photo: Tara takes a bit, as I captue her, and the rest of the gang, on camera at our wonderful Christmas dinner. I have to admit that I love to capture beautiful women in compromising posistions.

Photo: Gorgious Nicole, as always, graces our Christmas table and provides a beautiful photo for my camera.

Desert you ask? Sharlene's world-famous harvey wallbanger cake, sugar cookies and pumpkin pie, topped with whipped cream. Truly a feast to love, treasure and enjoy.

After dinner, it was time to open presents. Our gifts are usually quite low-key, and mostly border on the gag-gift theme, which makes it fun for all of us. Due to the fact that we have a huge, extended family, most of us have opened our "serious" gifts either on Christmas Eve, or earlier in the day, so by the time it gets around to Christmas night at our house, the gifts are on the "gag" side of things. Hey, isn't one of the more important aspects of life is to have fun? We have fun on Christmas!

Photo: Darling Reilynne is a one-girl wrecking crew, as she can turn our living room into a crime scene in just une 30 seconds.

Photo: We open presents, as Tim looks on, as Gary and Donna receive Christmas gifts.

Photo: I hug my wife, as Kayleen puts up with me on ther lap. Mom, Sharon, is busy talking on the phone with her husband Mike, who was out of town for Christmas.

We haven't had a white Christmas in Roseville for nearly 150 years, but we had a cold, rainy Christmas, as we had a slow drizzle all day, with a maximum temperature of 47 degrees. Y'all in Minnesota will laugh, but y'all in Texas will agree that Christmas was wet, cold, but beautiful.

Christmas, 2008 at our house. Fun, friends and family. That's what it's all about.

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