How I know I'm not a real blogger

We had great plans last Thursday.

These plans included travel - flights and a rental car and seeing family. All of the Koglers were gathering at the farm for Christmas. There would be food! Hilarity! Late nights and card playing! Puzzles would fit in there somewhere as well.

Living in the Pacific northwest, we depend on cooperative weather - both here and in Kansas - so we can travel. So, on the 23rd we were packed and ready for our flight the next morning. Presents were wrapped, the house was relatively clean, kitties and mail and trash were taken care of, refrigerator almost empty and . . .

. . . the Kansas weather didn't cooperate. We were snowed out. As in blizzard conditions. No way to get to Salina on Christmas Eve. We hoped the weather would ease up and we could come on Christmas day. Then it was the day after. Then we gave up.

Dang.

There would be no turkey or ham. None of my mother-in-law's butterscotch pie. No Pitch or Norwegian poker. No puzzles. No hilarity as my college-age nieces unwrapped their gifts of teeny-tiny feminine undergarments and gleefully showed them to Uncle Larry, who would like to believe that his nieces would never wear such things.

Of course, this all happened. Just not with us.

So, we played it by ear. We had a quiet, restful Christmas - not as lonely as I anticipated. We went to the Christmas Eve service at our church which we miss every year because we travel. It was so special! After church we went to Patti and Steve's for a Christmas Eve buffet and stayed there late, drinking wine and solving all the problems of the world.

Isn't it interesting how easily problems are solved when you have a couple glasses of wine under your belt? It would be even more interesting if I had pictures to show you.

See, real bloggers carry their cameras around with them at all times. Guess you know what that makes me. That's right - a fake blogger. I could have shown you Patti's gourmet kitchen and her beautiful buffet but I'm a big fake.

Fortunately I used the camera the next day. We had a wonderful Christmas morning! It was just us. And even though we were missing the rest of the family, it was lovely and restful.

All is calm, indeed.

Surprise, surprise - look what Santa brought!

It just wouldn't be Christmas without legos, folks.

Some of us had a harder time waking up . . .

. . . but new headbands made it all better . . .

I made cinnamon rolls - the easy kind - introduced to me by my friend Lynn. She uses her bread machine to mix and raise the dough and has all kinds of fantastic recipes on her site. Yum! I let the bread machine do the work while we opened presents.

We stayed in our pajamas until 3 p.m. Delicious.

Then - and this is the mark of true friends - the Bonners had us over for Christmas dinner. They took pity on our refugee status and shared their roast beast with us. It was fabulous. I made some bread that's been in my Want-To-Try-Queue - Pumpkin Ginger Cranberry Braid. I'll definitely be making that again.

Johnathan and Jennifer, the Bonner's nephew and his wife, were also present. They live in Logan, UT. Pretend I took a picture of them.

Dawn and Kellen rearranged the table settings to accommodate the five of us. Duane took this picture, not me, the fake blogger.

Tangent Alert: Do you think Kellen looks like Taylor Lautner or Ben Affleck? I was leaning toward Ben but then caught a pic of Taylor so I'm on the bubble. Either way, don't tell Kellen. He's a punk and we don't want him gettin' the big head.

The Great Caramel Pie Caper. Glenn has been jonesing for years for a caramel pie he remembers from his youth. A pie the church ladies used to bring to Baptist pot luck suppers. He managed to get a recipe from a reliable source and wanted to try it out. Of course he needed my expert advice.

Plus he needed an assistant to keep the finished pies away from Sophie the Pie-Eating Dog. Yes, it was Sophie. All her. Not Lilly. I always believed in Lilly's innocence and I WAS RIGHT.

Hmmmph. Told you so.

Christmas was good in our neck of the woods, despite the lack of photo documentation to prove it. How was yours? Any fun stories to share? I'd love to hear them.

Love,

The Fake Blogger