Christmas is.....

A happy time.... when I look forward to my kids coming home, too much food, too much mess and too many gifts. In my life, working at an elementary school, there is so much hype in the air.. with Santa talk, with concerts and Christmas music, Christmas Shopping party for the kids, Operation Others. We have a diverse staff who have all different plans for their holidays... There are staff parties, staff nibblies, staff gifts....

Our holiday was filled with traditions like Fondue for Xmas Eve, stockings after breakfast and Chocolate Oranges. We played games, we built puzzles and we sat around and talked.. a lot..

A sad time.... when I think about Christmas's gone by... and who I have lost... who isn't here with us right now... and what the next few Christmas's will bring. Like every other sadness I experience, the anticipation of the sadness is far worse than the real sadness. I worry about how I will deal with this particular sadness long before the event... and then when it comes... its certainly not as bad as all the worrying before hand.... That being said, I missed Stephanie this year but we talked several times on Skype and it felt like she was home. She and Sean were not sad or forelore, like I thought they might be... they were fine and spent Christmas like they would have if they were here.. a few gifts, some movies and a nice meal! I missed my Dad but it was not so bad this year.. not like last year... and I missed Mollie a lot... but having Kelly and Lucy here... filled that furry void I thought would be so big!

A time for family... and that was a blast. My sister in law, Kim and her two girls spend Christmas night with us for supper and a fun morning, making banana chocolate muffins with Grace (our tradition). This time, we were talking so much, I messed up the ingredients and we had only half the flour that we should have. What a funny looking and tasting muffin we produced.... ewww.... . My sister arrived this afternoon for some shopping, sewing and the Wii...

Michelle and Scott left yesterday with all their pets, Michelle's cooking supplies, their laundry and their loot. I hate to see them go... its been a fun time, with all our cooking, our Wii fun and movies...

Pictures are worth a thousand words.... please enjoy..

Christmas eve.... talking to Stephanie and Sean on Skype... it was their Xmas Day....

Christmas eve Fondue... a Matheson Tradition with a Peters twist!! We had both a oil fondue and a broth fondue, with chicken, beef and seafood... yum. The Matheson Hollandaise Sauce, oven fries and fresh garden salad... yum....

A Wii surprise.

Christmas PJ shot... with all the boys in their matching flannels...

Christmas Dinner with turkey and all the fixings.. Kim brought a sweet potato dish, which I refused to like.. since I was sure I didn't like sweet potato. But.. I loved it.. yum. so delish!

plus a fancy plated dessert with a medley of tarts, double churned ice cream.

When you ask a young man to put the blocks on the ledge to special Christmas.. and this is what we got... each day.. a new one....

Some cute pets shots.......

Apollo

Lucy and her new toy

Kelly snoozing after all the xmas fun

Tonks and Parallax in the basement, ready to Wii

Tonks looking annoyed... but she wasn't.. she never is!