Christmas 2011

Christmas is full of traditions,  some of them you don't realize are that until you notice that you are doing them again every year.  Luckily, some of them get refined a bit more each year until they work correctly.  This year was the first one in ages that Andrew was home, and with Theresa as our new daughter in law.  It was great to have them here, and we are lucky to have Theresa to be part of our family. 
This year started on Christmas Eve with the candlelight service at church.  Nicole sings in the choir and they had an outstanding group of songs, and the rest of the service was great as well.  Then we made the ill advised decision to eat out since we hadn't eaten before church.  Of course nothing was open, so we ended up at Burger King.  Actually, since it was one of the few places in Derby there were a fair number of people coming in.  There were only two crew people on duty and they were kept busy.  We all spent a few moments feeling guilty for being the reason they had to work on Christmas Eve.  We decided than, that we would set up hors d'ouvers before we leave for church next year and eat that when we get home.
On Christmas day, we don't open any gifts until the Blomberg's get here after their morning Christmas at their house.  We all went to church at ten and it was a fantastic service.  If possible the music was better than the night before and the message was just as good.
Theresa is a fantastic baker, she made baklava from scratch as well and a flan cake and other treats for the day.  I ate as much as I could yesterday and still wanted more.  The rest of the family came over after church and we ate brunch and opened presents.  Wyatt had something of a melt down, (I am understating here), but he calmed down enough to participate in the rest of the day.
After that we went down to Wellington and picked up Jaunita and we all went out to Chris and Phil's for dinner.  I bought all the little kids fleece throws this year and they seemed to like that.  I felt more creative than just giving the money like I usually do.  There was lots of food and a lot of fun with my family.  We were all glad to have Jaunita with us.  I miss my Dad so much and I didn't realize how Jaunita is the closing living human tie left to my father. 
My wish to all of you is for the same love and blessings to you that we are able to share here in this family.