Christmas Shots

Oriental wishes you a Merry Christmas. And yes, I am a day late!

Aren't these cute?

My favorite house at Christmas:

I love their vine wreaths. I love the blue shutters. I love the gate.

I know my family near and far might want to see photos of our Christmas, so here they are:

Peter and dogs. They just go together.

Before the carnage of ripping open began ~

We're deep in the years of what I call "Adult Christmas." No little kids. No hiding presents under beds. Everybody picks out their own stuff, even buys it with money deposited into accounts beforehand. Not a very magical Christmas! I'm looking forward to a decade from now when (hopefully) we'll have some little people around to make Christmas fun again.

My jamberries were holding up well.
Okay, grandparents. Here's Peter, showing you some of the clothes he found for Christmas, and he says, "Thank you!" The jacket was a great find. He also found the nice shirt and a sweater, and other things too. But I'll admit that he probably spent a good bit of your Christmas cash having loads of fun with Kara last week. I know you won't mind that!

The girls, showing you some of their new clothes. Anna tortures Julia with one of her hugs.

 And then Anna behaves. They both bought lots of fun things at "Rue 21" and "Twice as Nice," among other stores. Julia adores that camo shirt she's sporting. They bought leggings or jeggings or joggers -- pants these days have so many names!

Anna's hair is getting long.

The saga of the socks! Julia found some adorable socks at Bath and Body Works; they were little foxes. The store had quite a selection. I almost bought a pair too, because they were oh-so cute!!! But I decided to wait. Sure enough, when we went back a few days later, they were GONE! Sold out. So sad. But Adam found these adorable socks for me. I go through a lot of scuffing-around-the-house socks.

And he got me chocolates. The white ones (coconut) were especially good.

And some soaking items ~

And more chocolate ~

Christmas night, Adam made some apple pandowdy for an evening snack. This brought the troops into the kitchen.

It was very good. I had mine with salted caramel ice cream. If you haven't tried salted caramel ice cream, your life is not yet complete.

Adam and I went for a bike ride. The water was still, and one sailboat headed for harbor about sunset.

Julia and I walked to the water too, with the dogs, and I caught her silhouette. (I spelled that word correctly the first time, without looking it up! Amazing -- thought you'd like to know!)

It's been a lovely Christmas. The children haven't fought much. The dogs haven't been sick much. The tree is smallish and fake. But the love is large and real, and that's what matters :)