Last Days of December

On the 20th of December it seems life started up again. We had the room redo mostly done, and family and the holidays took over as the prominent focus of our lives. The accumulating snow played a major role as you can see. As you might imagine the snow impaired the coming and going around here. This is a photo of one daughter and our three granddaughters out in the snow.

 

Then Kelly, the oldest, warms up in the hot tub with the little ones, Angelica on the left, Marin on the right.

 

We included some holiday traditions such as making a gingerbread house. I have to admit these kits they make nowadays are soooo much easier (and more successful) than the ones I tried to make from scratch years ago.

 

So from the evening of December 19th through December 23rd Mike and I had the three little grandchildren. Noah spent his first nights away from Mom and Dad. Rachel and Josh called frequently to check up on the little guy, but we all survived! Mike and I haven't forgotten everything about babies and we can still keep up with a crawler.

 

And finally Christmas Eve arrived!

 

For years our tradition has been to host a big Christmas Eve dinner and celebration with family and friends. Often the town folks stay overnight making it a big slumber party. Her are a few of the Christmas Eve photos.

 

Great-grandma Margaret (my mom) with Noah--the oldest and youngest.

 

Daughter Meg with (could it be?) a hot buttered rum.

 

Daughter Rachel and son-in-law Josh.

 

Marin on the go.

 

Angelica hatching a plan.

 

Friend Erika sharing a snack with Marin.

 

Mike's sister Eve.

The next morning Santa had come and the children's wishes came true.

 

After all the package opening the little girls got down under the tree with their new art supplies.

 

Rachel watches Marin from Marin's new Ikea chair. The little "art cart" was my invention for the granddaughters. I could write a whole blog entry about the frustrations of working with Mod Podge on the rolling suitcases.

 

Friend Jay asks "What was that all about?"

 

When it's all over, Mike and the cat take a well deserved long winter's nap.

Two days after Christmas, Mike and I are finally alone again. Mike had to push the last one out the drive.

 

Almost immediately I went out to the studio to paint a masterpiece--or at least a potential entry for the OSU Art and Agriculture competition. So for a while today I was creating a colorful tulip field and was thinking Spring. More on the painting later.

Happy Holidays to you all!