Hail! Hail! The Gang's ALL Here!

It's not that I'm not used to having a daughter or 2 MIA for the holidays. When your nest becomes empty and your kiddos find SOs (Significant Others), you expect to do some sharing. You don't really like it, but you do (or you SHOULD) expect some sharing during the holidays.

This was a sharing year for our family so Christmas was strangely quiet. It's not quiet anymore, though! Everyone arrived Tuesday evening and yesterday was the end of the quiet. Which is just fine with me.

It's finally looking a lot like Christmas around here!

So far---

We've had more food. Birdie and SILExtraordinaire hosted a Christmas brunch on Wednesday:

We have different dietary needs in our family when everyone is here so I am often taking recipes and making them my own. However, I just don't mess with my shrimp and grits recipe. 

Mom's Shrimp and Grits

2 lbs shrimp

breakfast sausage, crumbled and browned ahead of time

1 green pepper, julienne

1 red pepper, julienne

1 red onion, chopped

Organic vegetable broth

bourbon or sherry

butter, 1/4 cup, plus 2 TBS

flour

Melt 2 TBS butter in saucepan, add shrimp and vegetables, season with salt and pepper (I use Nature's Seasons), and sautee until shrimp is cooked. Remove shrimp mixture from pan. Add 1/4 cup butter and melt in pan. Add enough flour to make your roux, then add veggie broth until you have a thick gravy. Return shrimp mixture to pan along with the sausage and add sherry or bourbon to taste. Serve over Mom's Carolina Grits. 

Deanie and DrummerBoy brought Baby M a HUGE present which she LOVED opening!

Though she did need a bit of help...

We had to get some shots of all the aunties and mommy with Baby M. She'll never lack for love, will she?

Great Mimi put some $$ in cute little Christmas socks for Baby M. Her new favorite color might be GREEN!

And the sister gifts. This one is from DoodleBug, the youngest lovely.

LOVE these girls!!!

We are expecting my dad and stepmom today for more fun and craziness! This mama is finally feeling good about the holidays. We did have fun on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day but it was weird with me putting a hit on Christmas giving and two lovelies not being here. I don't think we have to worry about that anymore, though. 

Next year, it's back to normal. This year, we continue the post-Christmas, pre-new year celebrations!

Y'all are going to be sick of pictures before this year is over!

Is anyone else out there still in celebration mode?