Christmas Festivities

Here are the pictures I meant to use in yesterday's blog to tell about the various activities that made up our Christmas celebration. I wrote about breakfast, but of course the big event of the day was the Turkey Dinner at noon time. There were fourteen of us this year around our two tables, and it is always so good to have many family members sharing a festive meal together.

It looks like the senior family members all chose to eat in the dining room.

And here are the younger family members, in the kitchen. Sorry, Amy and Rudi must not have arrived before this was taken.

Some of the crowd spent the afternoon snowmobiling, while the rest of us were happy to stay in where it was warm. That evening we had supper at Kathy and Larry's house. What a delicious meal we had, and a very nice time together. I hope it is the start of a new family tradition!

I love these pictures of Maeve taken the morning after Christmas. I think she was really happy to be able to just play with her new things without all the pressure of opening gifts and being overwhelmed with all the activity. She and I had a very relaxed morning together.

She couldn't decide whether the grapes or the candy were her favorite!

Here she is with her two new dollies.

The next day we visited my Mum, where we had lunch, Jen and Rich, and Jon and Brenda, where we had supper and an evening of games - lots of fun!

On Sunday we had another family gathering with Kevin's Aunt Delys, Uncle Al and Uncle Orville. It was good to see all of them again, since we hadn't had our annual get-together with them for a few years. Jen Rich and Maeve were here too, but somehow didn't make it into the picture.

We had a games night on December 31 with friends and family to bring in the New Year, with games like Sequence, Pit, Chess and Pictionary, as well as yummy snacks, it was a great party.

These are the people who were still here at midnight, others had headed home earlier and missed the key moment of the evening!

We had a pizza party here on New Year's Day, followed by games at the Chalet.

I'm sure Rudi and Rich were having more fun than it appears here!

Last Saturday was our first skating of the season! First we had friends and family for Brunch and then headed for the pond. The ice was perfect and the day was glorious (but cold). The hockey players had a blast, and I skated to my heart's content at the other end of the pond. Maeve was quite discouraged at her first attempts wearing skates, but it just takes practice! Hopefully we will be able to clean off the snow that has arrived since then, and be able to enjoy it again.

You can see what a beautiful day it was for skating! Afterward we went to the chalet for a visit and snacks.

The final event of my Christmas season was our Mothers' Union group's get-together - a Progressive Dinner. We first gathered at Kathy's house where we had appetizers and some delicious home-made soups, then moved on to my house for the main course. We also exchanged gifts with our secret pals and drew the names of our new pals for the next year. We visited another member who wasn't able to join us, then ended up at another member's home for dessert and tea. It was a time we all enjoyed.

As busy a time as Christmas always is, with people coming and going, meals to prepare and lots going on, that is just the way I love it and I wouldn't change a thing, except to have three more Phillips' with us - the ones who live in Alberta. Hopefully at Christmas 2009?