Story Grandchildren. . . believers all

Lucy, age 6, front and center, isn't at all afraid of Santa anymore. Her younger brother, Cameron, following her lead, isn't either. This was not always so. A wonderful exchange took place between the little one and the old gent last night, culminating in her receiving permission from the ultimate authority figure (who checked with Mom just to be sure) to have a best friend stay with her overnight.
The neighbor's grandchildren have hosted the Clauses every Christmas Eve for 15 years. Hundreds of photos documenting this exist on albums and on line. It has been great watching the neighbors' grandchildren grow up and reading their achievements aloud from the Santa list that Grandma and Grandpa Story prepare, along with an assortment of gifts. Most of them have grown too big for Santa's aging knees, but they willingly take their turns beside him. We're sure they'll never outgrow believing in the magic of Christmas Eve and the anticipation and wonder of what is to come.

Early start for Christmas Day festivities

Grandma and her helper, Maxwell, tended the buffet.

With questionable weather looming, Kathleen moved our official annual family Christmas up 24 hours, to a good result. Twelve family members gathered and enjoyed ham and scalloped potatoes, a variety of salads and vegetables, and a blueberry pie.
We changed the format on the gift-giving, everybody simply brought three gifts -- new or used --which were randomly chosen by turns. Then a barter session ensued, as merrymakers improved their holdings, by swapping for more appropriate gifts.

Caught taking an early helping.

Emily and Christina got into Santa's closet and made a surprise appearance (above). Meanwhile, Birdie discovered an untended spinach/cheese loaf upstairs and helped herself to no bad result -- and spent the remainder of the holiday sprawled contentedly on the ottoman.
Tomorrow we'll let the winds come, the sleet, snow and rain pelt the city; we're happy to be snug at home with loved ones safe, finishing another wonderful Christmas season.

From left, Kathleen, Alex, Jennifer, Stan, Christina, Gabby, Missy, Tasha, Marcy and Emily.
Missing is Maxwell who is taking the picture because we don't have a selfie stick.

Christmas past

2012

2013

2013

2015

Making Christmas bright. . .

Vance and Katie have matching hair so
we take this annual picture.

Okay. Just kidding about Ladies Night. Actually we enjoyed a nice sedate gathering of most of the neighborhood last night, a cheerful group of merrymakers. .. politics-free. Highlight was a visit from Virg's Significant Other, Kim, which gave us an opportunity to introduce her around and make comments without Virg present. He's still in Florida, will be here in Minnesota soon for Christmas, so we were able to freely make unedited remarks about our dear brother.
Andrew performed yeoman duty behind the bar -- fully attired. In the snapshot below he was clowning around getting ready for the festivities.
Half the neighbors are snowbirds home for the holidays so this was a special occasion on the tundra.

It was Ladies Night at Standup Stans

The women of Abbey Point enjoyed an evening relaxing at the annual Ladies Night and Christmas Party.

Carson was booked

This was for practice. Tomorrow he'll actually uncork the bottle.

Mr. Carson had a previous engagement, so Mr. Sampson stepped up to service tomorrow's annual neighborhood Christmas party. Starts at 5:30. Guests can stay up late and stumble home, so the butler may be clocking some overtime.

Little Dickens

Our little Dickens adjusted the Christmas Village scenery in 2007. Is this the year to bring it back out?

Prodigal Brunch Eggs finally back on overnight menu

Golden and firm, these brunch eggs rated well in the test kitchen experiment this morning.

Brunch eggs are an American standby for overnight guests. There's nothing like being able to prepare eggs, bacon, milk and sausage the night before, leave the concoction in the fridge, hopefully get a good night's sleep, then pop it in the oven and have it come out piping hot just in time for your awakening guests.
That was the idea a decade ago when newspaper executives Matt McMillan (Hutchinson) and Wayne Kasich (International Falls) stayed overnight with us before attending a Manager's Meeting the next morning in Red Wing.

Stands up to the finest in dinnerware.

Kathleen followed the recipe as usual, but this time the result was a minor catastrophe. Our guests were good sports, but the concoction just didn't congeal properly, didn't have the proper "egg loaf" feel to it. It was actually pretty bad. Whatever went wrong? For about 10 years the unreliable brunch eggs solution was abandoned as a candidate for an easy-to-fix group breakfast.
Until now. Kathleen thought about it and then wondered? Did she use 2%, our usual milk, instead of the richer whole milk? Could that make the difference? It would be nice to resurrect the old standby, but we needed to build our confidence first. An experiment was proposed, this time with whole milk to mix with the eggs and other ingredients. We'd make a half-batch in the test kitchen and enlist the aid of former grocery man and breakfast hound Joe Daly in making final judgments.
This morning, the classic oven-baked brunch eggs came out looking perfect. They sliced up into neat squares and held together until cut with a fork. Joe called in his congratulations, after downing his portion.
Redemption for the Brunch Eggs! We won't be opening a Bed and Breakfast anytime soon, but we're ready now. Matt and Wayne have been notified.

Executives Wayne and Matt at a breakfast in 2007. Note that this time Katie is serving waffles.
Nothing was mentioned about the previous Brunch Eggs surprise.
Such Gentlemen. Of course, it was a free breakfast. :)
Wayne is now retired, Matt is the Director of Newspapers at Forum Communications in Fargo.

Spritz

Baked.

 Ready to bake.