HallmarcDotNet

Tue, 03 Jan 2012

Christmas was nice. Our anniversary was nice. New Year's was nice. Today is the last day before the kids go back to school.  So I will write a few things about what we did over Christmas and for our anniversary. The best things are that Bryan came home and my mom came to visit. The Christmas shopping was mostly done before Bryan and Mom came, so our time was mostly spent relaxing and visiting. Yes, we played pinochle. I did get to do some shopping with Bryan for some warm winter clothes. Ad Mom and I did a little shopping together just for fun. 

We baked some cookies.

On Friday, the kids finally got off school, and we went to the zoo. It was cold and we didn't see many animals, but enjoyed the chance to get outside and walk around. Mom has two new knees she wanted to show off.

Then on Saturday, we made quiche for Christmas morning. 

And Marc was off work and supervised the making of chocolates. 

On Christmas eve we had our traditional (sometimes, depending how we feel) dinner by the Christmas tree. 

And then opened a present. This year only the younger people had presents to open. The rest of us already had too many pairs of pajamas. I guess that's what happens when you don't outgrow your clothes…

After some movies, we had hot chocolate and went to bed.  Melody and Thomas in their new jammies.

Christmas morning we ate quiche and opened presents. Since it was Sunday, we went to church in the afternoon. We watched more movies on Sunday.

On Monday, we had snow! Melody had really been hoping for a white Christmas, but I guess she got her order in a little too late. Or it got lost. But we did get about an inch of snow. 

It made the drive to Springfield a little prettier for Marc and me. Yes, we went to Springfield to celebrate our anniversary. 20 years really merits Hawaii, but we'll have to do that another time, when life isn't so busy. We really enjoyed the Lincoln museum.

And we also saw a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. I wish I'd gotten at least one picture of the house,but pictures weren't allowed inside, so I left my camera in the car and didn't get any pictures. You'll have to check out the web site for the Dana-Thomas house designed by F.L. Wright. I really enjoyed this tour. And I liked the house much more than I expected. I decided that I wouldn't mind being rich. Except the lady who had this house built had a sad life in spite of her money. 

Anyway, we had a nice little get-away, and came home to find that the kids hadn't tied Grandma up and that all were safe and sound. They'd even built a snowman in our absence.

You can see that the snow didn't stick around long. Mom and I did go on a little hike and there was no snow, but the trail was kind of muddy. 

Mom left a couple days before New Year's and Bryan left New Year's Day. We just had a relaxing, quiet holiday together. It was nice.

Melody and I decided a couple days ago to try to crochet some of the cute winter hats that we've seen in the stores. We had fun doing this.  Melody made the two on the left, and I made the others. The one without pink or obvious purple is for Thomas. He says he is brave enough to wear it.

Maybe we'll feel creative in 2012.