At last. I have a chance to sit here and share the pictures from Saturday and Sunday. In case you forgot from my previous post, we and Ray and Thyda were at Sam and Jenn's for Christmas evening and overnight.
Saturday morning - nothing like morning snuggles!
Dick fried bacon and saugages, then I made pancakes for the crew.
Sometime during the morning Bjorn and Jess dropped in. I'm glad for every little minute I get to catch up with these busy kids! They were on their way to spend the days with some of Jess's relatives.
Thyda, Jenn, and I (and Bianca too) went grocery shopping for the food for our fondue supplies and other food too. We had fun, as usual, filling up two carts. In fact, we shopped till Bianca dropped!
The guys were busy too. They had to go to Home Depot for a few things. Dick was coming up with a new invention, which you'll see later.
Dick and I took Sammy and Bianca with us to Dick's parents for dinner. Our niece Juanita Stauffer, who now lives in North Carolina, was in Lancaster County for a few days. The aunts and uncles and a few cousins got together to see her. Juanita's parents, Bob and Doris, live in Minnesota, so they of course were not there.
Grandpa enjoys time with his boys.
Juanita is the one in the black and white stripes. She was the first grandchild in the Stauffer family, born a little over a month before we had Lisa.
My dear sister-in-laws Deb, Faye, and Carolyn.
After we said our goodbyes we stopped in to see Grandma Mary. She will soon be leaving for a couple of months in Florida, so I wanted to be sure to have some time with her. I showed her the book Miki wrote. The bear in the book is a stuffed bear that Grandma Mary gave to Bjorn when he was little!
And then she surprised us with an apple pie fresh from the oven! What a treat!
Sunday was our fondue day. Last year was our first time to have it in Sam and Jenn's basement, and we decided that it is the perfect location. Those side tables are built in, and make it so easy for us to line up all the food cafeteria style. Jenn and Thyda are always my right-hand girls at getting things set up. I'm sure Ray was offering his advice, hahaha!
Meanwhile Sammy told me to come over to another room in the basement where he was decorating. He was so proud of what he was doing with that red string of tinsel!
Please notice that tinsel decorating the lower wall! Isn't this the most lovely wall and fireplace?
Dick had gone to Reading to pick up Destiny and J'von from Frank's place. He and Lauren both work at a restaurant which had booked a huge party for that day, so they were not able to get off work. I was really disappointed.
Sometime after 1:00 we got started. Notice the new addition to our oil kettles - Dick came up with a wire edging that nicely kept our forks from slipping into the oil!
This girl just loves to eat!
Sammy and Bianca had a table of their own, but they were at our table most of the time!
Soon after we got started Anthony also arrived. (Lori and Austin were in NYC with her parents.)
Bianca loved the chocolate and strawberries!
Then it was time to give our gifts to the kids.
Sam and Jenn's new dog, Bella, decided that Anthony was her new best friend!
Family picture - Jenn, Sammy, Bianca, and Sam.
Ray, Thyda, and Leo. Look at Leo posing, haha! He's so sweet!
These kids kept entertained with their devices. In case you're wondering about their gifts - they're at the stage where they prefer money!
Bella is really a cuddler. She likes to be held like a baby! She is a blue healer cattle dog. Ever hear of that? I never had, but everyone says they are very smart. She was a rescue dog and after a number of foster homes, has finally found her forever family.
J'von and Destiny had a lot of fun with Sammy's new play-doh hair set while the kids were napping.
These were their creations!
After everything was cleaned up Jenn finally got to sit down with her tired little girl. I think Jenn was even more tired than her little girl was. Being a hostess is exhausting, but she does it so well.
Around 6:15 we said our goodbyes, taking J'von and Destiny with us. We did our annual trip under the beautiful canopy of Manheim square's Christmas lights. Even in the rain they did not disappoint.
We met J'von's mother Danielle at a Sheetz gas station near Mount Joy, said our goodbyes to him, then headed for home with Destiny. She usually stays the entire New Year's week, but this year her mother had other plans for her, so our time together was very short. I'll post a few pictures from that tomorrow.
I have so many pictures to share from our Christmas that I will need to do more than one post. I'll start with one brief restful moment on Wednesday. I got home late afternoon from doing food prep at Anthony and Lori's, we would be having practice at Houserville in the evening, Dick was not yet home, my house looked good, smelled good, was quiet, and I decided that I would grab the opportunity for a 30-minute nap in the middle of this week of meeting deadline after deadline. I lay down on the sofa and enjoyed the beauty of our Christmas tree for a brief moment before I dozed.
My restful moment was the last one for the next few days! Thursday morning I finished my Christmas shopping in the amazingly warm weather.
I had been planning and preparing all along to lead the music at both Fillmore's and Houserville's Christmas Eve services. But Wednesday evening I found out that due to an emergency, another church was in need of a pianist for their Christmas Eve service. So when Dick and I left the house for Fillmore's 3:30 service, we knew we were not coming back home till much later in the evening.
The service at Fillmore was awesome. The benches were full of people and they sang at the top of their lungs! My choir did three songs from the musical "Jesus, There's Something About That Name," including bells and flute in the one song. Of course, my guitar player, Ross, and my flute player Brenna, helped me accompany all the congregational Christmas carols too.
The other thing that made that service extra special for me was that Lori, Anthony, and Austin came. Austin was fascinated by the candlelight portion of the service.
When that service was over we went to Anthony and Lori's house to give Austin our gifts.
This boy has been a Star Wars fanatic long before the latest craze due to the movie that just came out.
When Destiny was here at Thanksgiving she had found a brand new Star Wars puzzle in a tin. That was her gift to Austin. He loves to collect and save money too, so by request, he also received some cash from us.
I did not know that I would be receiving a gift when we went to their place. Apparently at Thanksgiving our kids came up with the idea of going together to get me a camera. Anthony did all the research and the purchase and presented me with this. He said that they decided that they can't keep me from constantly taking and posting pictures when we're together, so they can at least help me to take good ones!
Because I had to rush off to a 7 pm service at the Woodycrest UMC, Anthony had to do a very quick explanation of this camera's features, and just enough info that I would be able to take pictures with it set on "auto". One extra thing he showed me was the flip-out thing for taking selfies!! So this was the first selfie with my camera!
I decided it would make a cute profile pic on FB with Dick peaking out behind me!
Much more about my camera later. It is probably one of the most amazing gifts I have ever been given.
So Dick and I went to the 7 pm service at Woodycrest, circled through the drive-in at McDonalds afterward for some snack wraps, and then went to Houserville for their 9 pm service. At that service our praise team introduced the "It's Christmas Medley" from Chris Tomlin's new Christmas CD. It combines a jazzy version of Away in a Manger with a little bit of Go, Tell It on the Mountain, and then the most joyful new chorus: "It's Christmas! The angels are singing, and I know the reason the Savior is born. It's Christmas, the bells are ringing, and I feel like shouting Joy to the World!" There's a great trumpet descant and interlude. If you haven't heard it this season, I'm sure it's on YouTube.
Needless to say, I was glad to get home that night and get into my comfortable nightgown. That red shirt I had on was scratchy!!
Christmas morning found us home alone, Dick wrapping gifts, me pulling things together for the next few days.
We met Lori at the nearby airport around 1:00, where she was picking up a rental car, to say our goodbyes to her and Austin. They were heading to NYC to spend time with her parents.
Around 2:30 we packed our van to the HILT with tables, chairs, gifts, pots, griddle, food and luggage, and headed to Lebanon County. We were SO happy to see these faces for the first time since Thanksgiving.
Sammy could hardly wait to have Grandpa help him with his new magic tricks.
I made sloppy joes and baked beans for our dinner. As usual, Bianca was stripped down so she could fully enjoy her food without ruining her clothes! Here she is all cleaned up afterward. Her hair is suddenly growing!!
Ray and Thyda were also there, so of course it was a fun evening just being together.
They wanted to see my new camera. Here's my first attempt at using the selfie feature.
Sweet Leo. He's already five years old and pretty low key. Sam and Jenn just got a puppy, Bella. So the two dogs had some interesting doggy fights. (Pictures of Bella on the next post.)
Just getting comfortable!
Talk about getting comfortable!
Sammy, forever the director!
I stayed up way too late with the big kids. Sometimes when you finally get to relax it seems like too much work to get up and get ready for bed!
I'll post many more great pictures from Saturday and Sunday on my next post.
