A Very Beachy Christmas

On Christmas night we went over to Dick's for more gift exchanging and celebrating.  Dick and MT have been busy the last few months making "beaten biscuits", even using Florencie's biscuit brake (what is that, you ask?)...here's what Wikipedia says about beaten biscuits:  

"Beaten biscuits were once so popular that special machines, called biscuits brakes, were manufactured to knead the dough in home kitchens. A biscuit brake typically consists of a pair of steel rollers geared together and operated by a crank, mounted on a small table with a marble top and cast iron legs."

We took Florencie's biscuit brake out of her basement when she moved (I think it actually belonged to her mother?), and Dick and MT used it to make some delicious beaten biscuits for our Christmas celebration.  MT made a ham spread that I actually liked better than using pieces of country ham - they were all gone in about 2 minutes!

Dick spoiled the kids with even more gifts and stockings!

Pink and black zebra patterned luggage for Syd

Madden '12 for John

A letterman's jacket for Tanner, who earned his
JV letter this year.  This is really cool, because
Dick was the football coach at Eastern High School
for many years, and now his grandson is the QB there - I
love that!

And from one Eastern Eagle to another, Tanner spread a little Eagle love to his Badoo too...

2011 District 6 Champions

And THEN, as if we all hadn't received enough this Christmas, Dick gave us all a very special gift...a week in Wild Dunes in a beach front house!

We are all so excited!  We had so much fun in Wild Dunes last summer, and by the looks of the house that Dick has rented, we're in for an even bigger time this summer!  So generous!

We had a delicious meal of ham sandwiches, cheese grits and creamed peas (John must have eaten nine helpings of peas!), and we spent the rest of the night visiting, goofiing around, playing the Wii and relaxing.  

Sarah wrestles with Aunt TT

Syd and John get ready to eat 

Taylor's friend Ashley and Rich visit

By 9:00pm, we were officially ready for bed.  We had had such a great last couple of days of celebrating, but with the end of Christmas comes physical and emotional exhaustion (it's tough work writing all those letters to Santa!).  We all collapsed in bed that night, so grateful for another wonderful year together.