Christmas Wrap-up

Christmas officially commenced with a family wedding.

The bride is a friend of my goddaughter Vic. The groom - first son of my youngest brother.

Took this shot last April. The bride-to-be is on the left.

After the wedding ceremony, there was a family luncheon. In the evening, a reception.

Kenneth, my highly social grandson, LOOOOOOOOVED all the partying.

My sister Tricia hosted our Christmas Eve dinner.

In our family, there's no wine or beer, but we tend to get a bit drunk on music.

As you can imagine, singing the carols was the highlight of the evening,
although my sister's cooking was a close second.

BTW, Tricia is what you'd call a professional vocalist.

You can listen (and even purchase) her music at TriciaStorey.com


After dinner was cleared, here's what remained ~

On Christmas day, there were two present opening extravaganzas at my house.

The first one @ 9 a.m. with Kelty & Duane's family,
with little Ms. Rella May modeling her mom's new fuzzy hat & scarf:

The second one took place when Arian and Jill along with their three kiddos arrived @ 4:30 p.m.

This little gal loved the delightful chaos almost as much her older brother and sister.

On Christmas night, aunts and uncles and cousins came over for a final round of celebration.

Notice the three conversations taking place in the kitchen.

What might they be saying?

The foreground = "Do you really think so?"

The guys in the middle = "No kidding! It was about this long."

In the back = A compliment followed by "Shucks" and a downward glance.

Another four knots of conversations in the living room.

I'll only guess at the fireside chat:

"You could see this ginormous elk grazing just beyond the lake."



We have taken lots of hikes up the canyon with all the visitors in town.

My granddaughter Audrey has been living in Nevada
and simply HAD to experience snow up close, REALLY CLOSE.

Her brother Kenneth found a hefty rock with a nice vein of quartz and determindly lugged it back down the canyon.

It still sits on my front porch, reminding me of that little guy and his family,
now settling into life in Oxford, England.

Truth is, there's been little snow this year.

What's fallen has mostly melted away, as you can see from this shot taken on December 23rd.

I'm not complaining. Not complaining AT ALL.

This has been a spectacular holiday season, wrapping up a banner year for my family.



As I type, I can hear Kelty and Duane packing up downstairs.

Duane's mom and sisters are doing likewise.

There are outbursts of boisterous laughter at regular intervals.

Tomorrow @ 4 a.m. I'll be driving one family to the airport, headed to Chicago.
and bidding another family farewell from my front porch later in the day, headed to Canada.

Then, I'll sit back and enjoy the quiet.

I like a strong dose of holiday pandemonium . . . followed by the restoration of orderliness.

Both are good and provide counter-balanced elements of rich living.