Well, I've just gotten my Christmas decorations packed away so I thought I'd better wrap up these Post Holiday posts, too, if it's not too late! Christmas evening dinner at our house! The grand dames arrived in their finest and looking beautiful and vivacious as ever! Betty White has nothing on these near 90 year olds!
Always a lot of energy at "the kids table", think I'll have to listen in :))
once again, the "adult table" is acting their age with fun Christmas cracker treats!
Why, we even had a "hipster" table for these crazy kids!
But, these fine gentlemen kept it stately, ah, who am I kidding! We had a riot of a good time, despite the fine china and silver place settings. We had a few bottles of fine wine!
The twins charmed us all with their wit and good cheer! It was a Merry Christmas!
What we are up to now is "Pizza Night", the eve of Christmas! And all through the house, not a clean hand! Yea. we were up to our elbows in flour and dough, marinara sauce and pepperoni! But, we still had the Goat cheese margarita, the BLT, the shrimp and garlic, the BBQ chicken, the caramelized brussel sprout pizza with sun-dried tomatoes and smoked Gouda, the feta and olive pizza and about a half dozen more!
the twins were looking goodenjoying the party
and opening their gifts
but, in the other room, it was chaos!
Taylor keeps the rowdy bunch entertained!
Christmas morning, we found a few gifts under the tree. This lovely gift was hand wrapped by Taylor, for me! So gorgeous, I had to get it documented! It was a ScanDisk MP3 player, so tiny, I can clip it onto my sleeve or waistband as I go around the lake in the mornings. It even has a FM radio so I can listen to my favorite morning radio!
Terrywasso excited and surprised to find the entire 8 seasons of the "Get Smart" episodes waiting for him!
It was especially nice that Sean and Katie were here to celebrate with us!
So, as Sean's old room took shape as a real guest room, we continued the decorations for the rest of the house. We found a great tree lot, with great prices for both the living room tree, here, and the smaller tree for the guest room.
the trimmings continued on the "mantle" and doorways and windows and really, every place I could fit a bough of greenery with a splash of sparkle and snow.
most of these branches, pine cones and berries were "finds" on my morning walks around the lake. A little spray of snow or gold and silver created a little Christmas magic!
Wouldn't you guess, we had a pre-holiday practice dinner! Complete with the dry brined beer-butt turkey!
oops, guess this pics out of order, but Terry inspects the temperature of the bird.
doesn't Taylor look thrilled to help out with the gravy :))!
The practice dinner was a success. Our chef was thrilled!
These past holidays seemed rather busy, and looking back at my pictures I guess we had a lot going on. I'll have to post in sequels before I get caught up! With Sean moved out, we had a room that needed a little somethin' somethin'. It just took us a few months to get ourselves psyched to approach it. But, we had a deadline. . . Sean was coming back for a visit! So the clean out began. The projects, the books, the boxes left behind all got sorted, some got thrown, some donated, some stored.
Next, new things came in (this was really fun). . .
and unpacked and sorted and put together to somehow look like a new room. (notas much fun)
and once the lighting went up, things fell together and the room took on a magic of its own.
Taylor helped me with painting, Terry put the daybed together and the new linens made it cozy.
justa little Christmas magic with a tree in the corner (more fun:)) and it worked. We were ready!
Try your color matching skill with this fun test. May tell your something about your abilities to pick out paint colors, or to match your outfit in the morning! LOL! Of course, your computer screen may affect your score. Mine was a 14 under flourescent lights at work.
OK, I ripped this off, but if you haven't seen this, take a look!
"A picture began circulating in November. It should be "The Picture of the Year," or perhaps, "Picture of the Decade." It won't be. In fact, unless you obtained a copy of the U.S. paper which published it, you probably would never have seen it.
The picture is that of a 21-week-old unborn baby named Samuel Alexander Armas, who is being operated on by surgeon named Joseph Bruner. The baby was diagnosed with spina bifida and would not survive if removed from his mother's womb. Little Samuel's mother, Julie Armas, is an obstetrics nurse in Atlanta. She knew of Dr. Bruner's remarkable surgical procedure. Practicing at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, he performs these special operations while the baby is still in the womb.
During the procedure, the doctor removes the uterus via C-section and makes a small incision to operate on the baby. As Dr. Bruner completed the surgery on Samuel, the little guy reached his tiny, but fully developed hand through the incision and firmly grasped the surgeon's finger. Dr. Bruner was reported as saying that when his finger was grasped, it was the most emotional moment of his life, and that for an instant during the procedure he was just frozen, totally immobile.
The photograph captures this amazing event with perfect clarity. The editors titled the picture, "Hand of Hope." The text explaining the picture begins, "The tiny hand of 21-week-old fetus Samuel Alexander Armas emerges from the mother's uterus to grasp the finger of Dr. Joseph Bruner as if thanking the doctor for the gift of life."
Little Samuel's mother said they "wept for days" when they saw the picture. She said, "The photo reminds us pregnancy isn't about disability or an illness, it's about a little person" Samuel was born in perfect health, the operation 100 percent successful. Now see the actual picture, and it is awesome...incredible....and hey, pass it on! The world needs to see this one!"