Friday, January 18, 2013

A little catch up here - Christmas



Christmas has come and gone and here are some statistics:

I love foot photos.  They're at the beach in December.


  • Two Christmas trees:  a small one inside and
    a large one just outside the slider.  The white "blobs" are fake roses from our Christmas tree the time I was so very sick.
The outside tree
  • Company for 17 days
  • 15 family members visiting
  • 5 different ways of eating:  diabetic, gluten free, milk free, egg free and the traditional 'I don't like its" (of which I heard very little)
  • Ham for Christmas dinner.  Lisa and Brynne made traditional Finnish dishes for Niko, but he laughed and said it wasn't quite right
  • My daughters and granddaughters cooking the suppers
  • Eating leftovers for lunch
  • Eggs and bacon too many mornings
    • Sheets and such that we washed and put right back on the beds so the next person could move in
    • Sneaking naps and still ending up way too tired
    • Riotous opening of Christmas gifts.  When everyone had their gifts, my oldest granddaughter just yelled and started tearing paper and throwing it in the air.  I laughed so hard.  Everyone joined in.  I found bits of wrapping paper for days
    • The dish washer died.  I put a sign on it.  I drew R.I.P. on a tombstone.  I used it for a dish drying rack.  (I actually did very little dish washing.)
    • Waking up mornings to the smell of coffee.  Only once was I the first one up
    • A few warm days with sunshine, then the air  cooled way down and there was no more sitting on the porch and talking
    • Fresh tomatoes from the greenhouse and tangerines from our own tree as well as a gift of tangerines
    • Gifts I love, but don't remember who gave them to me
    • A crazy puzzle called the Red Shoe - you had to find the shoe when you finished the puzzle.  My family all worked on it at one time or the other
    Puzzling

        Our visitors loved going to the beach.  One of them actually went in to get wet.

        A happy beginning to a fishing trip - where at least
        half of the guests got sick.


        We had a great happy time together.  Only our Marine grandson Holden didn't make it.  

        It was so sad when everyone had gone home.  We had a last minute heart stopper when we arrived at LAX with Brynne and Niko, our Finnish guests, and the airline said they had no tickets to go home, but in the end the problem was solved and they arrived safely home.
        For days later I woke up and listened for voices or sniffed the air for the smell of coffee.  The house felt too quiet.  Everything was still out of place because I was too tired to put it back.  Maybe I liked it that way.

        Roy said this was the best Christmas ever.  I have to agree with him.


      6 comments:

      1. It sounds fabulous! I know what you mean about that silence afterward and everything out of place. We had close to 50 of my husband's family in my house over a two week period five years ago, and I'm just now getting the energy to finish getting things back in order! But I loved every minute of it and the house was so quiet once they were gone. Hope you have a fabulous new year!

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      2. It was fabulous - and tiring, but the tiredness was worth every minute spent with my family.

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      3. It sounds WONDERFUL! I'm sure it was exhausting and messy, but those are usually the ingredients for the best times!

        It's good to see you back, pally! I hope you will start posting again. :)

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      4. Yes, Lin, I hope I'm back. I have a lot of blogs to catch up on as well. Like the one where you tell us your daughter is almost grown up and going to college. Wow!

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      5. Sounds like a wonderful, very busy Christmas at your house!

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      6. It was wonderful maryanne, but it left me so tired - that I caught cold and have been sick for weeks. However, I'd do it again and again. A cold is nothing compared to a good visit from my family.

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      I'd love to hear from you.