Christmas 2015 - Days one and two

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.