Christmastide

Odd being in RI for Xmas and not in WV. Odd to have a big meal but just the five of us to eat it. Odd indeed.

Xmas went over well here. The kids were more excited by the thank you note Santa left than their toys and more excited about their stocking stuffers than their presents. They enjoyed.

First, the kids with Santa (#3 was having nothing to do with the man).We, by we I mean the VOR, made some party mix (with nearly a cup of bacon grease, aka renderings) delicious candy this year: peppermint bark, turtles, yogurt pretzels, corn flake clusters, chocolate covered peanuts, and 7 layered cookies. Here is a picture of the aftermath:Also, on the 23rd Sylven came over with the table! More pictures forth coming, but for right now here is a snippet:While waiting for the table to be delivered I walked outside to examine the bees (does not look good - losing about 50 a day. They are not eating properly and the mites are getting them). As I walked about in the yard I noticed that the maple leaves had melted into the snow creating a beautiful imprint:

The kids were angels in this years Xmas pageant. The Xmas Eve service, at 11:00pm was packed - I could not believe it, who stays awake that late on Xmas Eve? It was your standard Lessons and Carols. Over the week I have been listening to some songs by Steve Earle, Tom Waitts, U2 and Johnny Cash which made me think of a different style of lessons and carols - but how to you transition music that you listen to to congregational songs (this is one of my life goals).

The VOR's birthday is today, she tells stories of family forgetting her birthday, having presents wrapped in xmas paper and always getting a cake her dad liked more than she did. I took the kids (just #1 & #2) out shopping on Saturday for coffee (they got hot chocolate with whipped cream), then some wine for xmas dinner (they looked at amazement at all the bottles) mom's surprise xmas gift (they loved the croaking frog key chains) and mom's birthday present (for some odd reason they loved the dark brown and orange selections). #2 has a hard time with keeping secrets. He told me as we exited the van, "Hey dad, I can keep important secrets." Later that day he revealed to mom that we went to a jewelry store, but he didn't say what we purchased. Later on he said' "Hey mom, "I can't tell you what you got, but you can wear them on your ears."

In preparation for the birthday I finally got around to printing a picture for the VOR's locket. I found that if you print out a contact sheet of prints it will work perfect. Here is the picture I took for the locket, probably the best one of all three together:
More on the ham (by ham I mean the country ham, not one of the kids) later...