Dec. 25: It is with a grateful sigh that Bryan and I are now resting in a mostly darkened living room after a multitude of holiday festivities. The treelight glows, the kitty purrs, and all is quiet. A nice way to end a couple fun, festive, and somewhat frantic days of holiday celebration.
New photos are in the gallery from last week and the last couple days.
We spoke to Bryan’s parents this morning. They are in Wichita, spending Christmas with their parents and LuAnn’s brothers’ families. Ben and Melanie are also in Wichita with his family. We miss them all, but Andrew enjoyed looking over photos of our last Christmas together as a reminder of the fun times we have had in the past. Andrew’s attention span for looking at pictures is somewhat remarkable. I think he must have gotten that from me:)
On Christmas Eve, we had my family over for dinner. It was a lot of fun to invite others to our home for a major holiday meal. We ate our traditional beef stew on mashed potatoes alongside way too many other dishes. After dinner, we sang a bit, opened presents, and then tried out Bryan’s new poker chips with a few rounds of family poker.
This morning we work bright and early to find some presents from Santa under our tree. Andrew wasn’t so sure about the sit-and-ride horse we got him, but he was pretty interested in the wooden dinosaur magnets, a xylophone, and a Fischer-Price farm. At 8:30, we headed over to my parents and saw what Santa brought there.
Andrew was particularly excited about a new wooden puzzle. I liked my new mistletoe, and Bryan got some golf ball finding glasses.
By 10:30, we headed down to Monroe to see Grandma, Grandpa, Julie, Kevin, and Gary. Julie and Kevin provided a massive feast for us all, which we ate with gusto. Andrew even liked the gingered cranberries. Grandpa has been in and out of the hospital and nursing home the past few weeks, so we all took turns visiting him at the nursing home.
We got back from Grandma’s in time for Andrew’s bath and bedtime. And as I said when I started, now Bryan and I are in some form of collapse in the living room. What fun Christmas celebrations we had!
I hope your Christmas was tinted with the makings of delightful memories.