Has it been a month? I guess so although it doesn't seem it to me. Maybe the holidays just got me all mixed up. They certainly didn't get my blog done. Anyway, Nancy and Jim arrived unexpectedly on my birthday to help me celebrate. A great and welcome surprise. Although they only stayed for a day we had a good time visiting and going out to dinner. Margot Jeff and Heather arrived the Sunday before Christmas. Again, much fun and conversation (I actually think they came to see mom but condescended to stay with us). The first job was to trim the Christmas tree. It's the first time we used an artificial tree. It looked a little scrawny before the decorations got put up on it. It still looked a little bleak but not too bad. I think we'll use it again next year. If only I could figure out a way to fold the decorations up on the tree like the lights are done, we'd be all set.
Next came the serious work. this included:
Nancy making Christmas cookies,
Jeff playing Sudoku
and Margot and Heather cooking.
Heather got into it and decided to make some biscuits for Christmas. We used an old family recipe and she turned out the dough and kneaded it.
Then she formed the biscuits and baked them. They were delicious.
After that she decided a little relaxation was in order and went to work on a puzzle.
We all had Christmas eve dinner at mom's place (we brought it all in). More or less a traditional Christmas Eve with dinner, reading the two Christmas stories and, of course, the wonderful
singing that the Hawkinses are so well know for.Then on Christmas day we opened presents. Very creative! We'd drawn names and everyone worked on their present so it wasn't a total surprise but the actual implementation was.
The next day Sara Wes and Ella arrived and we had a mini Christmas all over again.
Don't know how I managed but somehow Wes never got in my pictures
. And he was spending time with Ella which is what I was generally aiming my camera at. Next time Wes.Heather gave Grace a dancing lesson. She was a very apt student.
The next day Margot, Jeff and Heather had to leave.
We were sorry to see them go but we still had Sara, Wes and Ella to play with. The next morning Ella showed the rest of us how to eat a pancake.
All to soon they too had to leave but they left us with great memories and some gorgeous
paperwhites.After a quiet new years eve (we must be getting old as we were asleep before midnight) and some much needed work on local projects, we headed to
Michigan to help Grace celebrate her third birthday. She was in good form and helped with the cooking.Nonna made her a great cake which I didn't capture because the camera battery went dead. I did take a picture of it on the phone camera but have yet to discover how to get the phone picture into this blog. Maybe next time. It was a spectacular birthday cake. Prior to the party Grace went with her dad, Isabella, Nonna and I to the tractor store. It turns out Grace loves to ride the tractors in the showroom. Here she and Isabella have found a tractor just their size and are trying it out on the showroom floor.
After their experience with the tractors in the showroom, they decided they wanted to really get going and take Isabella's jeep out for a spin (there was only about 6 inches of snow on the ground at the time). Here they are taking it for a spin on the walk that Mark just cleared.
Looks like fun huh? After a several hang ups in the snow they finally came back in with wide grins on both their faces. Cold but happy. Finally Grace got to open her p
resents of which she had many.The next day, after about 8 inches of snow fell, we headed home. the roads around Detroit were mushy but as we got further south the roads got clearer and were just about dry in Ohio. The trip took a little longer than usual but wasn't bad. We'd had a great time visiting with everybody and seeing Grace, Isabella, Polly and Mark. Too bad they live so far away.
Well this has gone on long enough. I'll save any political or technology comments for next time.
