After celebrating the holidays with us, Claire and her family left for home two days ago. Their visit didn't begin until New Year's Eve. so it extended our Christmas in a good way. The Advent preparations, festooning of the house, cooking special meals; everything had its place in making our holiday memorable. The visits from family and friends turned it golden.
Something special to note is that Steve helped with half the gift wrapping this year! It was also his second year of installing the star over the manger at church AND he bought me a surprise Christmas gift. I mention this only to note that we will cheer the humbug out of him yet. He is not really a grump, but he can be lackluster when it comes to celebrating Christmas.
His participation was critical in our impromptu New Year's Eve party. We threw it together three days before. Everyone brought food, which we laid it out in a buffet. We ate, played games, drank a little, toasted the New Year (early), claimed we would not stay up until midnight but did anyway.
As I was transferring all the photos off my phone yesterday, it gave me a nice moment to recall the highlights of the holiday. I recognize that all of these moments happened because we were healthy, warm, sheltered, loved, and loving in return. We also felt joy and hope. May these blessings continue for everyone into the new year!
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| A bucket of cuttings Kay and I picked and used to decorate the church. |
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| The table is set for Christmas dinner with Audrey and Tess's families. They requested I make Grandma's meatballs and sauce. We also had eggplant Parmesan, salad and bread, and red wine. : ) |
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| This little needle drum was finished in the quieter moments. It will receive an embellishment of white chenille around the top and bottom. | | | |
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| I went with Claire and four of the children to the Pinball Museum in Roanoke. It's called a museum but for $15 you can play all the machines all day. There were loads of pinball games from, I'm guessing, the 1950's to present. It was a lot of fun. (But make sure you wash your hands when you're done.) |
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| Granddaughter and grandson attended the 30th annual Vintage Ball for home schoolers. Three hundred guests attended. Tess went to this ball fifteen years ago when she was a teen. At that time, seventy-five guests attended. The kids and their cousins were over-the-moon happy to be going to the ball. |
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| Claire's family stayed an extra day so they could enjoy the snow. It wasn't very deep but the ice coating made sledding fun. | | | |
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Steve built this sled from an old pair of skis and wood. It flies!
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