Christmas After-Action Report - Part Two

I'm a little tired this morning. Yes, Readers, even the Goddess has a human side that gets tired. Two days of Christmas celebration, cooking 5 lbs of bacon, 3lbs. of sausage, uncounted waffles, warming syrup, melting 2 lbs of Butter and keeping the house relatively clean will do that to a Gal.
But it was worth it! I think a good time was had by all. I KNOW the granddaughters had a good time. Older Granddtr helped me cook waffles and was rewarded with bacon. She takes after her Aunt ABG in that regard, they are both bacophiles. She also ferried plates from the kitchen to the dining table. She is a little Domestic Goddess. She also has extremely nice manners. Every time she opened a present from her other G'mother or the Dearly Beloved and me, she would get our attention and thenk us, and make sure she "oohed and ahhed" over it. When she opened the necklace from my Mother she was delighted. It was a tiny locket on a fine chain, and from a longer, heavier chain dangled a filigree heart. The XY offspring had gotten her a couple of crossword puzzle books and a multiplication skills book. She has just started doing xword puzzles this year, so she was v.excited about those. The multiplication book will hopefully make that skill a bit more fun. She seemed happy to get all of them. The Dearly Beloved and I gave her a couple of books for fun reading and a book about the Presidents. I told her that I expected her to have all the Prezs memorized the next time I saw her. She nodded gravely. She looked so serious, I had to immediately tell her I was teasing.
The Younger G'dtr was just a hoot, as always. Her other G'mtr gave her a doll almost as big as she is. She was carrying the doll around most of the night. It didn't interfere with opening presents, tho. She got lots of goodies, just like her Sister. Movies, books, "girly" stuff. Again, the XY offspring hit it out of the park with coloring books for her. Those two have a mutual admiration thang going on. Last Christmas they were busy coloring together, this year when she opened one of the coloring books he gave her, she stopped opening presents. It was one of those books w/ the pics outlined and detailed in "velvet". {And no, you smart-alecs, there aren't any pics of Elvis, or The Last Supper in there! } There was also a pack of markers on the cover. She wanted to immediately start coloring. Her Mommy convinced her to keep opening presents, promised her she could color once she had opened all the presents.
Those girls left with a bag about 3' tall stuffed with presents. Their Daddy left another bag sittin' in the kitchen. I'll betcha there was some tears in their household this AM when its presence was missed.
When the SNSS comes back to install the GREATLY appreciated Pfizer Pfaucet he and his Lovely wife gave the Dearly Beloved and I he can pick up that bag o' goodies. Well, the gift came with an attached tag that said, "installation included". I also got a soft, warm robe. And a photo album. I guess SNSS told Lovely Wife about the stacks of pics I was organizing to put in albums. The Dearly Beloved gave me a new pair of Crocs, in the Beach style of a dun color and an Estee Lauder train case.
The Dearly Beloved got two gun books from me. One is The Art of the Rifle by Jeff Cooper and the other is actually an essay that was written in 1875 titled The Pistol as a Weapon of Defense in the House and on the Road with a foreword by Jeff Cooper. He also got a jar of garlic salsa that he tried this morning and pronounced edible. And to whomever told him about Michael Connelly, "Thanks". He's been enjoying his books. I got him Echo Park, too.
The Dearly Beloved's 1st wife joins us for Christmas every year. She gave us a gift certificate to an Italian Restaurant here in town. Yum,Yum. Can't wait to use that one.

Well after waffles this year I'm thinking we may have to go with something more traditional next year...maybe PIZZA!