Monday, January 05, 2015

The Twelve Days of Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year--lots of family, friends, feasting, and good cheer.  This afternoon we took down the Christmas tree with the help of our gold man, Mark Goldman, who every year comes over to put up the tree and decorate it, then comes back to take it down and put everything away.

Clearing out the living room allowed us to see things that in the hubbub of our family gathering we glossed over.  Beth, Scott, and Boys gave us two calendars with lovely photos for each month.  Already we are using Sue's both to look at and to track events.  For the calendar cover they used the group photo of the Felin sibs that we took at Sabrina's about ten years ago, something more precious with the passage of time.  Marnett, who is now familiar with Pete's weekly check-in with Sue, guessed which one of the brothers was Pete.  I asked her how she knew, she said, "He looks like a Pete.  [Of course, the calendar had Beth's thoughtful fingerprints all over it, as did the formal thank you card we received in the mail from Jalen and Brayden.]

Chris and Shelly, knowing how much we love bird-watching, gave us a finch feeder and thistle food  [Try saying that a couple times in succession.] plus a storage box filled with bird seed.  Shelly painted the four seasons on the sides of the box and a cardinal with birdhouse on the lid.  I have photographed the box and will post pictures later.  It is a work of art.

Brayden was here from New Year's Day until yesterday morning.  He had a fine time especially bowling, hiking, and being with Chris and Shelly.  Brayden and Shelly even cut Chris' hair, they claim with the dog shears.  I'll post a photo of his new hair style soon.  Actually, it looks great.  Shelly met Scott to pick up Brayden on Thursday and then met Jalen yesterday for the return trip home.  Nice to have that young man now driving!

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