Unlike All the Dead Celebrities ...

We had a pretty good 2016! 

Seriously, for pop culture and Hollywood, it was a rough year.

 But here's a look back at 2016 in the Christiansen household:

January ~ I enjoyed the new weaving loom Adam bought me for Christmas. 

February ~ I began spending many calm hours in the greenhouse,

 tenderly tending baby plants.

I also freed many entrapped apple trees in the garden, but they didn't bear.

March ~ We sent our little girl Anna to the other side of the world to teach English in Japan, not knowing when we would see her again.

 That was quite hard.

April ~ Adam made us a new bathroom, and we found a new farm dog.

Both have turned out to be a real blessing,

although the bathroom doesn't chew everything to bits or scare chickens.

May ~ Peter graduated from Western Carolina University!

We attended my niece's wedding on her parents' beautiful farm in West Virginia.

And although we have some real heart-aches occurring in our extended family,

I love them so much and miss them. 

June ~ We got chickens on the farm!!! 

I ate my first tomato from my garden on June 1!

Also ... I started wearing compression hose for my bad veins. Sigh :(

July ~ Adam and I went away to a nice B-and-B for our 27th anniversary.

August ~ Peter finished an interesting, hard-working summer on a farm,

and he decided not to go to Africa with the Peace Corps,

 opting insteadto invest in a very important relationship ....

September ~ I'm struggling a bit with what we actually did of importance

 in this month.  Lots of farm work. I was back at work each afternoon. 

Tomatoes -- yes, we were still doing tomatoes.

October ~ Adam bought me an early Christmas present, my autoharp.

And we weathered our first hurricane on the farm:

November ~

November started off with a bang of celebration!

Peter and Shani got engaged!

In smaller matters, Adam enclosed the front porch:

In addition, lots of eggs, and more tomatoes, 

plus some roofing work kept happening.

December ~ All I can say is that this has been the best Christmas ever!! Ever, ever!

Having everyone here, enjoying each other's company, relaxed, squashed in, 

eating and laughing and happy. It's been great!

Here are a few pics to share the joy:

So -- although some people we love have exited the planet

 and gone on to greater things,

 and although some that we love are undergoing great sorrows and we pray for them to be delivered, still ... in our family this has been a good year of milestones.

And I am thankful.