Sat, 26 Dec 2009
Merry Christmas to AllWe had a quiet Christmas around here, but it was nice. We had a "sometimes traditional, depending how we feel" dinner beside the Christmas tree.
We opened the traditional present-the-night-before. Surprise, pajamas all around (again.)
And watched Christmas movies until late. The kids didn't go to bed until after midnight and Marc and I after that. But we got a few hours sleep. Our kids, who used to sleep in on Christmas morning, were up by five. They let us "sleep" until six. We got up and looked to see what Santa had brought. Santa seems to be getting forgetful, because he brought a couple of the exact same things as last year. Maybe he should keep a list. Maybe his elves are slacking on the job.
Then we ate traditional quiche on the traditional Christmas plates. Oh, and drank traditional eggnog out of the traditional mugs. (See a pattern here?)
Then we opened presents. This is the first Christmas ever for our kids when Lego did not arrive under our tree. Wow. I think the kids were happy anyway. Maybe we needed more construction toys because the tree tried to fall down when the presents were removed. So, we've got another Christmas clean-up chore of trying to fix the stand on the tree, which seems to have broken, Or maybe we'll get a pre-lit tree. But we like our traditional tree. It was pretty this year.
I didn't mention the weather. It had been raining for a couple of days before Christmas, and we woke to rain, but by about eight it started snowing. It wasn't a lot of snow, but enough to have a white Christmas. Very nice. In this picture, Bryan is outside for his "traditional" barefoot run in the snow. Crazy kid! Melody is wearing a new Christmas scarf from Grandma and a DuBray hoodie that was her gift to wear because she lost the other one. Melody's friend, Alysha, is wearing the scarf the Melody and I made for her.
Melody and Thomas played with their friends, while the rest of us relaxed and tinkered with new toys. In the afternoon, our neighbors came over and we had dinner together. Then games and dessert and visiting.
I think I forgot to mention the cooking of goodies that we did before Christmas. Besides cheesecakes for teachers and friends, we also baked cookies to give away. One night we worked on this together. It was fun. And here we are.
Merry Christmas to all. We love you!
Sun, 20 Dec 2009
SnowWe hear about snow across the nation, so we hope all of our friends and family are staying warm and safe. We only got a dusting of snow two days ago. It made things pretty for a few hours, but now it is mostly muddy around here. More snow is predicted before Christmas.
Bryan had a very busy week. Between working, school and finals, and many hours of rehearsal for Rising Generation, he was pushing himself pretty hard. So naturally, he caught a cold. The concert last night was very nice, but by the time Bryan got home, he had a fever and declared the need to sleep for a week. Hopefully a few extra hours today will do it since he has finals on Monday and Tuesday. Let's hear it for Christmas vacation…
The rest of us? Well, I guess we got to finish Christmas shopping. And got cheesecakes successfully delivered to kids' teachers. Melody had tons of homework. We also finally got to see the sixth Harry Potter movie. And Marc got a little closer to the last of his migrations at work by doing two more middle of the night ones. Of course we all finished the week by attending Bryan's concert to get in the mood for Christmas and eating the traditional ice cream afterward.
Tue, 15 Dec 2009
An early holiday visitI haven't written because I was busy with company. It was a very anticipated week since my mom and brother got to come out. Their visit went by way too fast, but we enjoyed talking and game-playing. One day, Melody and Thomas got out of school early and we went to the City Museum and had a lot of fun.This is one of the new slides on the roof. There is also a Ferris wheel on the roof. It was very high and a little scary. We had sunshine, but didn't stay long outside because it was cold.
At the City museum there are tunnels to explore. This one ran right under the floor.
We took lots of pictures.
We explored the Crystal Caverns.
We roasted marshmallows, and Wayne got to get in his first ball pit.
We thought of Michael, who's on a mission in Neosho, Missouri.
On Saturday, Bryan performed with the Rising Generation Youth Choir. They marched in the Santa Parade in Old St. Charles.
And then they sang at a special event at a church building in St. Louis. The music was really good and so I'm looking forward to their next concert, this Saturday.
Before Wayne left, we made cookies to send to Michael.
Melody also had a choir concert. It was for school and we enjoyed this one also.
We didn't get the snow that Mom wished for, but we had very cold weather and wind one day. It was so nice to have company in December. Thanks Mom and Wayne for making the time to come see us. It was great to have you visit. Now all we have to look forward to is Christmas. Most of the presents are wrapped and under the tree.
Mostly, we've just had typical Missouri December. Hope we will get snow before Christmas. The cardinals are pretty all year, but best in the snow. If you want to come see cardinals (or us) just let us know and we'll be ready.
Jan Dill Hall St. Peters, Missouri
Page created: 09 November 2008
Page modified: 31 December 2009
