T'was the night before Christmas...

And the day after.






Christmas morning started off quietly enough. I got up and started baking a ham, and when it was done, Lynne got the turkey ready and cooked it for it's required time. Mom was still not feeling well, so she passed on dinner at the table(Lynne will fill in on that when she blogs), but she did come out for the exchanging of gifts, which the children (and us grownups) loved, of course.


One new tradition seems to have established itself during this Holiday season. At Thanksgiving, I gave our son Kevin the honors of carving the turkey, using a carving set that had been my parents. Christmastime, another turkey, and Kevin was asking for the carving set. I sort of like these newly established traditions, especially ones that just happen out of nowhere.

The quiet peacefulness of Christmas Eve transformed into the expected sounds of paper tearing and wide eyes of surprise, and gifts were passed out.


I made the grandsons each their own bluebird house for their yard, and also did up a special photo for Celeste with an image of her Grandpa Glenn. All in all, Christmas 2005 was nothing less than Wonderful.

Oh, me, I got a house. Not just any house, but a TOAD house. Not just ANY toad house, however. MY Toad House. It even has a sign on it that says Tom's House! It will have a prominent place in the little patch of soil out front designated as Tom's Garden.

Life continues well, here in the Heartland, as the days slowly get longer, knowing that even though we're in the middle of Winter, Spring is just around the corner. The flowers trying to poke up out of the ground tell us so ;-)

Cookie Day, 2005

Well, last year, the grandsons were fully involved in helping me make a mess in the kitchen and dining room. This year, 2 days before Christmas, the weather was much milder, and the boys spent much of the day outside. They started out down at the pond, making imaginary boats out of ice chunks they broke off the surface after the freeze from the night before. Lynne and Mom had been under the weather with some sort of flu-like bug for 2 days, and weren't going to be up to a full day of cooking. As it was, though, we did manage to snag Brad to help decorate some of the cookies , even though the boys had me outside most of the day. Brad even did his best to convince me I still knew how to hit a badminton birdie!!! My muscles told a different story that night *ouch*

Lynne and I finished up the night making some peanut butter cookies and pizzelles, and our pre-Christmas preparations were about complete.

Wednesday before Christmas...

Lynne's sister, Ruth, and her family were going to be away during the holidays, so we all got together for snacks and a little gift exchanging at their place the Wednesday before Christmas. Naturally, baby Celeste was in very high demand, with everyone wanting to hold her. The grandsons, of course, had their eyes glued to the presents under the tree, and the youngest, John, was the official gift passer this evening. So many faces, so many names, but he got them all right!!!

Another nice family get-together, especially since Ruth and Russ managed to have all 3 of their daughters home at the same time!!! Rare anymore, between college, high school, and various jobs they hold down. And of course, anytime Mom gets to spend a little time with her children or grandchildren or great-grandchildren is a good day for all of us!

Wednesday before Christmas was a good day for all of us!