Christmas Road Trip: Day 3

Road Report
None; we stayed in Omaha today.

Notable Events
Our dad (back home in ND) wished he could have been with us, and he wanted us to have a special meal "on him" while we three kids were all together.  He had my sister Sandy pick up some tasty items from Omaha Steaks, and this was our Christmas Eve supper:

pasta/vegetable salad, steaks (that I grilled out on the deck . . . in the snow . . . and the wind), shrimp cocktail, twice-baked potatoes, homemade lefse

Dessert for this meal (and all the upcoming days of our stay, I'm predicting) included anything and everything from a kitchen counter absolutely filled with sweets, cookies, candies, and snacks.  Delicious!

Afterward we got all gussied up and went to an 11:00 P.M. candlelight service at Sandy's church, which looked beautiful with its simple decorations and white Christmas lights really standing out in the darkness of a late night.  There was a small crowd of about 60 people, making it an even more intimate experience.

looking toward the altar

looking the opposite direction toward the doors below and the organ and choir loft above

We took advantage of our all being together--and all being dressed up--to pose for a family photo in front of Sandy's Christmas tree:

my sisters Sandy and Cathy; and then Suzanna, Hillary, Susan, I, and Abigail

It was a great day: plenty of time to relax and visit and play Christmas songs on the piano and play board games and prepare food for supper and snack non-stop throughout the day and play with Sandy's kitty Trouble (her cat Yoda isn't sociable, so no playing with him) . . . culminating with night-before-Christmas tucking in for the girls, who (from beneath their covers) asked us to set out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.