A Merry, White Christmas

Mom, Joe and I drove to my daughter, Michal's, home in Wheatridge (a northwestern suburb of Denver) on a warm, sunny Christmas Eve. We enjoyed watching 2 of the great grandchildren, Miles and Kaylee, make and decorate sugar cookies and later got to see their parents, Brooke and Donnie, Lindsay and Derek, and Kaylee's 4 month old baby brother, Sean, when they came to pick up the children. Sean was sleeping in his baby carrier so I wasn't able to get a photo of him.

Our contributions to the Christmas celebration were roast beef cooked with potatoes and carrots for Christmas Eve dinner; red grapes, layered bar cookies that I made; Joe's fantastic peanut butter fudge from his Mom's famous recipe; and a pumpkin and a pecan pie from the Village Inn (I seldom do pies).

We had a quiet Christmas eve with Michal Ann and woke up Christmas morning to a sky full of snow. It snowed all day and was gorgeous to look out at; I'm just glad we didn't have to drive in it because there was a lot of black ice under the snow on the streets and highways. Kat, Greg, Ben, Mandy and Evan and then Carl, Robyn and Jason arrived around noon. We ate my homemade cinnamon rolls and Michal's egg, bread and sausage brunch casserole, and sipped Mimosas, while Michal and Mandy chopped mushrooms, onions and peppers for the three pans of lasagna (one vegetarian).

With the lasagna we had Robyn's great green salad with rasberries, pine nuts, and glazed pecans; garlic bread; and vegan Robyn's Cashew loaf, which is a family favorite. After the meal we opened the presents from under the traditionally decorated Christmas tree. I lucked out with a set of crystal Chardonnay glasses, a soft, charcoal gray wool granny shawl, and a set of Bible commentaries wrapped in a yard of Ricky Timms' dyed fabric. Robyn went into the Longmont quilt shop and asked the lady for suggestions and she told her to get the Timms' fabric because I'd know what it was as soon as I saw it. Joe surprised me with updated Photoshop software to help me make my quilt fabric better.

Watching Ben and Jason help Evan make his Lego Star Wars creature and then Robyn playing Transformers chess was quite entertaining. Everyone learns quickly that you can't win when you play against Evan because he makes up his own rules(4 year olds can get away with that.) But Robyn gave him a good run for his money.

Mother strung beads for the granddaughters and the quilt on her lap is Kaylee's "Quiltmaker's Gift" quilt that I made for her. She is very fond of it and loves to have Grandma Michal read the book to her while she snuggles in the quilt.

After our sad Thanksgiving it was so good to have the family together for Christmas. We just wish Sharon and her family could have been here but we all talked to her a couple of times on the phone.

This morning the sky was blue and everything was coated with a thick layer of snow as we drove back home; everything looked beautiful. It hadn't snowed as much here as in Denver but the ground was covered with pristine snow until we drove into our back driveway. Cho Cho and Ditto were quite happy to have us home again and Cho is sitting on the desk, keeping me company, as I type this.