The Merry Martin ThanksChristmas 2014

Wednesday was our annual Thanksgiving here at Happy Acres, as well as our Christmas celebration.  Those of you on FB have seen some of this; but don't get bored, there's lots more!

And it starts with Laurie "Guy Fieri" Easterday cooking the meal upon which I am still feasting, and hope will get me through Sunday...

From the empty plate at 1/4 till:  a pepper salami that KC got at work; Kroger brand stuffing; brown n' serves; my "mad doctor" first attempt at gravy (which wasn't horrible);selected pieces of the guest of honor; and in the center, Holli's recipe hashbrown casserole.

Plate #1 for me...

KC brought blueberry and pumpkin pies and cool-whip for dessert.  The pies are gone as of last night, and the cool-whip isn't long for the world.

Then after a bit of clean up ( and a little making-room-and-soft-music...)

(...which caused Laurie to walk around with one hand ready to cover her nose and the other holding a can of Glade...)

...we were ready for presents.  Except for KC, who already gave the TV last week "because I'm tired of tripping over the box in my little apartment..."

KC was excited to get a black-and-white Indians cap...

A book of faith-based crafts for Laurie..

A Vikes flag for KC

The greatest gift of all... a sonic screwdriver!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Laurie got Doctor Who stuff as well.

And a somewhat-too-small Blue Jackets.. um, blue jacket.

The sonic screwdriver was the life of the party therefrom, finding uses in:  preventing fart smells, checking Scrappy for need to go to the bathroom, examining KC's head for a brain, and various and sundry other uses.  When I accidently stumbled onto the switch hidden in the bottom, an evil laugh was heard...

A Reds hoodie, which will be further modelled in a bit

A pedometer for Mr. Fitness

The four bottles are not illicit drugs, not really;  from Israel, Frankincence, Galilee soil, Mt of Olives olive oil, and purified Jordan River water.  More on this in a bit, too...

And second most prized gift, Scrappy got a snoopy that plays the Schroeder theme when bit, er, squeezed.

And just to prove how much he liked this... (Warning: Brief bad language at the far end..)

"That's what I get for pulling Snoopy's stupid hat off..."

Remarkably, that's all he has managed to detach from Snoopy thus far, including a pull session as I typed above.

Here I am next day, trying on my new hoodie...

Now the gift from Israel (Built probably with Catholics in mind by Jews, purchased by a former Baptist deacon, and given to a former "guest" of the Jehovah's Witnesses) was a little problematic.  The "Rosewood crucifix that came with it was JUST a smidge off-center, the olive oil bottle leaked about half out onto the packaging, and the frame I thought I was getting with it was on the other one I DIDN'T purchase.  So I had to complete it with a shadow box- which was a bit of an unsticky wicket in trying to get the bottles to stay in place.  But nothing is impossible for a man with duct tape...

And thus, a trip to Hobby Lobby (which was having a half-off sale- WIN!) two discarded containers of non-stick glue, and yes, a little more language later...

Not bad for government work...

Christmas eve was finished off with football, listening to the Midnight Mass (Congrats to Bishop Rhoades for one of his better sermons!) and falling asleep.  Christmas day had as the highlight...

The Doctor Who Christmas special, in which the Doctor and I got one more Christmas gift- Clara (Jenna Coleman) will be back next season.  Bad news, next season is Autumn 2015 away...but as Bobby G said on his blog Friday...

...or season premiere day, as you will!  (Sorry, BG, I hadda do it!)