Our Christmas season begins with a celebration of Heidi's birthday. This year was special because she turned 40. To help celebrate, her mother and brother came out early and join us on the 17th for the big day. We had had a cake that the boys baked and gave her some of her presents in the afternoon.
We then went to a local Italian restaurant for a simple meal with Heidi, Eric, Bruce and Jean. Or so she thought. We arranged to have a little surprise party with about 10 friends that actually surprised her! Unfortunately in all the fun we didn't remember to take any pictures. You'll just have to trust me when I said we had great time.Between that event and Christmas itself we took part in various activities. One of which was a hike in the local mountains. Bruce, Ben, Andrew and a Cactus posed for this picture:
Then the boys actually stood still long enough for Uncle Bruce to get this one.
Another activity was the making of the Christmas Cookies! This year we used colored dough instead of decorating. Much easier for us non-artistic types. Here is a selection of the better results. Ben did the Bell and the Christmas tree:
One of the more exciting parts of this Christmas was that we were able to use our half redone living room. The fireplace/monument/burial crypt was completed just in time so Heidi was able to decorate a little and create a very festive space. It was nice.
Hopefully when we do Christmas at home again in two years, the floor will be in (it is concrete now) and the walls will be painted. We are not going to go so far as to predict furniture by then.The tree which we stalked and harvested from the forests of the Mogollon Rim looked beautiful. Good thing the room is two stories tall! Here it is before it was buried in gifts:
Uncle Bruce was kind enough to take a family picture. Heidi, Eric, Ben, Andrew and Grammy Gene. That lump of black in the foreground is Lou. Tisza can't make it down the two steps into the room so she watched from the entry way.
Here is a shot with Uncle Bruce substituted in:
Right after this picture, we stopped taking pictures because poor Grammy stuck her hand in her stocking and was stung by a scorpion. Yes, a scorpion in her stocking. Being a skeptic and a believer in the rational world, I have to assume that the attack was just bad luck and that Santa Clause was not delivering a stern and certain message about the naughtiness that goes on in Grammy's life. A very shocking event that caused all of use far more distress then it did to Jean. In the end she only felt a little pain and then numbness in the finger where it stung her, showing her resolve to not let a stupid little scorpion ruin her Christmas!After opening gifts and agonizing over the vicious attack on Grammy, we got down to the serious business of making dinner. This year we started a tradition of having the children each prepare a vegetable dish. Andrew, who is a true broccoli lover, concocted a special recipe that involved covering the little tree guys with a bunch of butter, adding Parmesan cheese, and then stirring everything together into a yummy, sticky clump. Ben stuck with his favorite, creamed corn.
We were also able to use our dining room table for the first time. Heidi did a fantastic job of decorating in a festive but tasteful manner. Hopefully the first of many great meal in this space. Perhaps it will have a floor and at least a primed wall by the next major holiday:
All and all a very enjoyable time. We had many great meals, wonderful conversations and only a moderate amount of screaming and yelling. One of Heidi's gifts was a great little pocket camera that takes great pictures. Hopefully it will result in more and better postings in this space.
Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Year...
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