Purely Personal #2

This is a recap of our Christmas this year which was wonderful since our sons flew in from Ft. Worth and Indie. Adding to the joy was the fact that Dean was able to celebrate Christmas with us and actually felt like celebrating. Wow!

Christmas decorations started going up at our house the first week of December. We were able to buy a tree the day before the cold weather hit and the month just  kept getting better. Here’s our tree and most of the nativity sets that we have collected over the years.  

The boys came in on the 23^rd and were able to attend the Christmas Eve service at church with us and since they didn’t leave until today (the 30^th) they went to church with us yesterday also. Brian gave us a special blessing/surprise when he sang a song during the first service accompanying himself on the guitar. Here he is in our living room doing one of his favorite activities. 

Jeff’s creative ability showed itself ranging from funky gift wrapping to culinary ventures to miniature  furniture building. I had asked him to make some dollhouse furniture replacements which have gone missing over the years. He brought his book about Arts and Crafts furniture and using the pictures, scaled his creations to fit the rooms in the dollhouse (see below.

 We did plenty of eating over Christmas week. Here’s a picture of three of my favorite men grouped at the end of the table for our Christmas Day meal. Dean got in on the cooking by making his “pizzantes” a trademark edible he first created when he had a take-n-bake pizza shop in Laramie.

The stockings were hung by the chimney

And a wonderful time was had by all.

Life goes on in the grand scheme of things and we waved goodbye to our boys this morning We were grateful to see them leave in sunny skies and on clear roadways, but the leave-taking is always bittersweet. 

I have to bring this around full circle and say, “Thank You, Lord, for making this all possible by giving us the gift of family, but most importantly, by giving us the gift of Yourself, that Christmas Day 2000 plus years ago.