Happy New
Year! I hope all of you thoroughly enjoyed your holiday season!
Here are the highlights of our last month.
My barbershop
chorus performed at another mall during the season (other than the one I
mentioned last month), and we went out caroling in the neighborhoods around our
rehearsal hall, so that was lots of fun.
We were
blessed to have lots of family home for Christmas. Cai went to Amy’s
house, so we missed them, but everyone else was here. There was a lot of
stepping over other people for a few days, but I wouldn’t trade it for
anything.
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| Alex and Alma Mickle (Hannah & Kevin), Hazel, Josie, and Ivy Sommer (Ella & Cody), Ruby Wilkinson (Carissa & Matt), Daisy Rhode (Kortney & Mat) |
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| The tree loaded down with presents |
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| We don't have a chimney so the stockings were hung on the couches with care |
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| Grandpa (wearing a Christmas crown) and Ruby (photobomb by Jem) |
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| Mom-mom got Daisy to sleep in her arms (photobomb by Zach) |
We also
celebrated my son-in-law, Matt’s, birthday while they were here with a delicious
Oreo ice cream cake (or was it a pie—who cares when it tastes so good).
For the last
several years, we’ve been having a family Christmas Extravaganza, sort of like
a talent show. Krista’s sister, Nanita, and her family joined us for the
fun this year. They did a piano and tenor recorder duet and joined us in
a few other songs. We followed that up with a karaoke time before calling
it a night.
By New Year’s
Eve, all of our visitors had gone home, but all of the local families got
together to watch movies, eat snacks, and make noise at midnight. Well,
some of us didn’t make it all the way to midnight, but as the song says, “It’s
12:00 somewhere.” (Yes, I know the song really says 5:00, but work with
me here.)
We’ve had our
typical western New York snow where we’ll get a foot or two over several days,
then it will warm up and mostly, if not totally, melt, and then another foot or
two will come. I’m so thankful God created snowblowers! Lately,
we’ve been in the 20s with a few colder snaps (they call them that because if
you’re outside too long, your fingers snap off), so our snow has stayed
around. It’s pretty in a cold sort of way.
Jan 6 was
Hazel’s 3rd birthday and Alex’s 1st birthday, so we had a party that Sunday
afternoon for them both. We had to work their party around the Buffalo
Bills first playoff game in this millennium, and we were glad to have a party
to take our mind off of the disappointing result of that game. Now that
the Bills made the playoffs, the longest playoff drought in the major sports
belongs to the Seattle Mariners. So, let’s see if we can knock that one
off in 2018, shall we? Now, since there’s no Bills or Seahawks in the NFL
playoffs, I’m just rooting for anybody-but-the-Patriots.
Stay warm,
and I’ll talk to you in February!
