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 ;-)