December anniversary and Christmas

In the last week, our family has celebrated my dh's and my 27th anniversary and Christmas!

For our anniversary, we went to Hooters. This has become a tradition for us -- many years ago, when we were still in the single digits, we went were going out to eat and I wanted wings. Well, I happen to like Hooters wings the best so that's where we went! Nobody believed us when we told them that we had gone to Hooters so it sort of became a joke. Since then, we have celebrated anniversaries that don't end with a zero or a five at Hooters and then we go somewhere fancy on the zeros and fives. We took the kids with us this year and had a great time. They also serve my favorite beer, Blue Moon, on tap. I loved Kev's twitters that night -- as we were leaving he twitted "going to Hooters with the family for my parent's 27th anniversary. Yes, my family *is* cooler than yours." Then when we were done he twitted "20 wings, an order of fried pickles, 1/2 pound of peel and eat shrimp, 6 mini burgers and 3 pitchers of Blue Moon later, we are back home." For what it's worth I didn't eat any of the mini burgers and I know I only drank 1/2 pitcher of Blue Moon!

The next day was Christmas Eve which starts out lazy but becomes a busy day for us. I made two kinds of soup because although it would be nice to have a fancy dinner on Christmas Eve -- that just isn't possible for us. Our church has services at 4, 6, and 8 o'clock. Kat's little kid choir sings at the 4:00; her teen choir and Mark's choir sing at the 6:00 and at the 8:00 Mark's men's choir sang, Kat's bell choir played, and she and I were scheduled for altar guild -- helping with communion. So in our tradition of not knowing who will be home when, I have fixed two kinds of soup for Christmas Eve -- and you eat it when you have the chance.

Then the next morning was Christmas! It is a little more low-key than when our offspring were younger -- but we still enjoy it and they still have their stockings filled! I got what I had asked for -- outside trash cans with wheels. Somehow it has become my job to take the trash out and I wanted new trash cans. Our old ones were over 20 years old! I also got a new camera which I desperately needed as my old one broke a week ago! My son is getting older -- he asked for and got an attache case! He also got money for clothes so that he can look good next semester when he is student teaching! My daughter got knitting tools -- one that she is very excited about is a yarn meter so that she can measure her leftover yarn. She also got a wonderful OSU blanket and an OSU magnet to put on her car and an OSU purse. I think my relatives in Tulsa are very excited that she will be close to them while she is in college. Oh Kevin also got a Jayne Cobb hat which you would know what is if you are a fan of Firefly. Kat, of course, knitted it for him and it looks great on him! After all the opening of gifts, etc. We went to my sister-in-law's house for a yummy Christmas dinner!