I won’t tell you how much I spent on groceries (shhhh….)  but I will tell you I prepared every single meal idea on my list and enjoyed every single minute of it.  Lamb roast with garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus, Homemade beef vegetable soup, Spaghetti e Gamberi with prawns, capers and spinach in tomato sauce, Homemade biscuits and gravy, Turkey feast with all the fixin’s, Thai curries, Spaghetti bolognese with meatballs, Italian sausage and  stuffed manicotti (that’s Seth Daniel above, stuffing the manicotti shells 2 weeks earlier so we could freeze the whole Italian feast since it’s a 3-day job) not to forget, Levi’s famous homemade Caesar dressing on the salad, Spiral sliced ham with scalloped potatoes, and more I won’t take time to mention.  (here, Daddy takes time to kiss the cook. This was Spaghetti night – his absolute favorite.)

Planning, shopping, unpacking, chopping, frying, boiling, dicing, serving and doing dishes later.  Pure enjoyment.  I was energized with the strength of my joy-filled heart at having the pleasure of all my children’s company for a very brief time; all of us under one roof, all of us around one table, all of us pitching in to help with dishes afterward.  What a rich woman I was this Christmas.  Good-byes were inevitable and then…..after the tears…the laundry!  Mountains of it strewn across the kitchen; bedding, bath towels and more bedding.  Didn’t matter.  Love compels us!  (and all the moms said, ‘amen’)  Tired didn’t matter; there’s plenty of time for sleep when the sun sets and the house is quiet once more….ok, well, sort of quiet – we still have two teenagers living at home, and one plays the drums .  (But they do like to sleep in).   (to be continued)

SPEAKING OF LAUNDRY…

…have you seen this product?  You are gonna love me for this, fellow homemakers.  These are the answer to one of your laundry prayers!  A box of 24 sheets runs about $3.50 here in the U.S.  I tear them in half to double my money, and toss a half sheet into the washer any time I’m afraid something might fade.  (which, for me, is nearly every load) New jeans, bright sweatshirt, dark socks….you name it, these dandy little cloths absorb any dye floating around in your washer, to keep everything honest!  Your whites won’t turn grey and your lights won’t be dulled by those bad boys who sneak into your double load on Sunday night during your hurried sorting.