Pictures of Christmas 2010

Updated: 12/27/10

Zeus	Joxer	Aries

Christmases Past
with Randy and Jim


Randy and the Christmas tree at the 12th St. house	Jim helping to put up the tree at my 14th St. home

Jim and the Herman, the "Christmas Camel"

Christmas 2008
The Last Christmas with Jim

Holiday Decorations

The puppies stockings are hung, on the mirrors, with care
in hopes that St. Michael would put some treaties there.

I confiscated this Christmas decoration from my Mom. I can't say that I stole it as it has never officially left her house.

But I have taken it for myself.

We came across this music box decoration as we were going through the boxes and boxes of Christmas decorations that Mom had stored in the "attic". (as we live in a double-side mobile home, our "attic" is actually a shed out back). As soon as I saw it, even with the top section, wrapped up and packed separately, I knew exactly what it was - it was one of many ceramic decorations that Randy had painted.

Sure enough, on the base were Randy's initials and the date "10-92". Boy, does that take me back. The previous month of September that year, Randy had been off-and-on sick and going to several doctors to determine whether the problem was a flare up of Chron's disease (an intestinal disease that had already caused Randy to have a surgery removing part of his intestines). While recovering, and on his off-days from working at the mall, Randy and Beth, along with me sometimes, worked on painting ceramics at Connie's Ceramics.

It's hard to believe that just two months later, when Randy would have given this gift to my Mom, that would be the Christmas (well, the day afterwards 12/26/92) that I would find out that I was HIV positive.

Back in the present, for a houseful of people who weren't too keen on decorating, we have quite a bit going on.
And a bunch of trees!

The main Christmas tree is in the living room standing on this cute snowman cutout table. (Like Southerner's would know anything much about snow, much less a White Christmas.

) It's decorated in white lights, clear snowflakes, red balls, red candy canes, and a big red bow.

	This is the tree in the office, where I spend my nights watching TV and playing on the laptop.
	This is the tree in my bedroom. It's actually a flat picture encircled with lights that I have hanging from one of the mirrors in the room.

MouseOver CloseUp

For the time being, the only snow in this area (even though it has been quite cold as evidenced by the toboggan on my head. You know the hat not the thing that you sled down the hill on) is the snowflake decals on the windows.

After shoving a string of white lights inside the snowman,
Frosty is quite cute all light up.

Holiday Fun

Well, there's one way to keep some of my Christmas traditions from Ohio, and that's to do them myself.

Catawba Clinic put together a Christmas potluck luncheon for the clients by supplying ham and turkey, while we provided the sides and desserts. Right next to the tray of turkey is my traditional Thanksgiving meal component of a green bean casserole. I hadn't made it since Thanksgiving at Joyce's in 2008; but it's just too easy to forget how to make and too yummy to not make. The luncheon went well and everyone had a nice time.

Take note, way now at the end of that table, near the top of the picture, is a covered pan of red and green cookies - those are mine too.
	Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without making and decorating cookies. (I still have fond memories of baking cookies with Joyce and her family, and this is probably the one time of year that I actually miss her even though she ended our friendship the way she did.) But the special magic to Christmas cookies is not who bakes them; but the love that's put into them. So I cranked up the Christmas tunes, baked a big ol' batch of my specialty, Chinese Almond Cookies, and iced them up once they had cooled.


	Of course, after I took the cookies to the luncheon, and Mom, Dennis and I taste-tested them, I had to bake another whole batch of them to have enough for Christmas with the family.
While in the kitchen, I threw together a few more goodies for the season.
	Using a Tupperware cake cover, I made a big batch of Instant Russian Tea. When my brothers and I were young, having Russian Tea was a holiday tradition passed from our GrandMother to our Mother. Now it's another part of my tradition. I made this huge batch to have plenty to give away as gifts. However, Mom and I "tested" so much of it, that by the time it came around to giving it away, I had to make up another batch too.
Back in Christmas of 2004, when I brought Jim down to meet my family, one of my sister-in-laws made up Jezebel sauce - a spicy sweet concoction that is served over a block of cream cheese and eaten with crackers. My Northern friends and "family" loved it and it became another seasonal tradition. I made up a batch this year to share back with that sister-in-law and my family at our get-together to bring the tradition back home.

Christmas Eve Day with the Snavelys

I spent last Christmas at the beach with my friend Jackie; and this year I was supposed to travel away for Christmas again. (Hmmm. Move home to SC and then never spend Christmas at home. What's with that? ) I was going to follow tradition with my Mom and Nana, and head up to Durham, NC to spend time with my Aunt Beth and her partner Chris. However, since Nana has been in and out of the hospital a couple times, she didn't really want to go on the 2 and 1/2 hour trip, so Beth and Chris came down here.

We all met up first for lunch together at a fancy restaurant that none of us had gone to before. And what a good choice it was! We had a nice table, located in an excellent position in the restaurant . Oh yes, the food was quite good too. Chris had a huge piece of fish; Beth, Mom and Nana had thick cut pork chops; and Dennis and I had very savory meatloaf.
	Afterwards we returned to Nana's house to sit and chat a while. You can't tell it from this picture, but Nana just recently had her back patio door and blinds replaced. The old one had a broken seal and condensation was forming inside. She had another replacement door with the blinds inside the glass but was very unhappy that those blinds just didn't close as tight. Just yesterday the crew was over replacing this new door - without blinds inside - and hanging her her blinds.
As the holiday is often about families being together, it was nice having a chance to chat with our family from Durham. Mom was able to spend some time with her sister, and I spent some time chatting with Chris.




Of course, the holidays is also about giving presents.

The Day After Christmas with the Bivens

Though the day was snowy, an early dinner was still going on as planned so that I could get together with my brothers and their families to celebrate the holiday. Mom and I worked on several other goodies to take along with the Jezebel sauce I made and the Russian Tea that I was giving out as gifts.

This Holiday Cranberry Salad made with cranberries, raspberry jello, crushed pineapple, and pecans is so yummy with it's cream cheese/sour cream topping.

You can't beat good ol' Southern Pecan Pie - even if we did have to cook them extra long to get them to finally set up firm.

Cranberry Salad, Spinach Dip, Jezebel Sauce, Turkey, Ham,
a variety of breads and mustards, Deviled Eggs, Pecan Pie, and Christmas Cookies
made for an excellent holiday meal.

After we all got stuffed with the goodies, it was time to share presents.

All my nephews and nieces:
Jackson, Jonathan, Jenny, Kayla, Allison

Dennis, Donny, and Lisa	Angie

Since we weren't certain about how the road conditions were going to be, we made sure to pick up Nana and bring her to the get-together too (besides she was making the deviled eggs so I wasn't leaving her at home

)

All-in-all it was another excellent time spent with all the Bivenses!

Christmas Presents

I picked up some nice gifts this year. No the dog bones aren't mine. Those are the bag of doughnuts are presents for the boyz! I got several cards, a box of assorted doo-dads as a gift at the ASO luncheon, a check from Nana, a Target gift card from the Bryces (that would be Bob and Loretta, my friends who own the Cottage Gate gift shop back in Ohio), and picture of Jim from a Waikem Christmas party that my friend Gayle sent me.


My aunt Beth (Mom's sister) and her partner Chris, gave us a family gift of the "gardening seat tractor" which Mom is modeling after I put it together. It has a carry-all tray under the seat and a basket on the back that will accommodate a 5-gal bucket. If we had been more properly dressed (Mom is just in lounge-wear as she's lounging around Christmas morning ) and there wasn't snow on the ground outside, we would have taken pictures of me pulling her around outside as she pretended to be gardening. Maybe we'll try getting that picture for real - later next year when it warms up and when it's time to really be doing some gardening.

December, 2010