Christmas Cheer!

For Adam and me, the Christmas festivities began on Saturday night in Oriental, where our church served hot cider and cookies in the freezing rain to the hardy souls there for the lighting of the star and the Spirit of Christmas events in town.

This included a flotilla of kayaks decorated in holiday lights (including a massive inflatable swan that we saw running down the street beforehand.) Only in Oriental!
Nautical street lights are the norm.

 

Boats large and small were bedecked and lit.

Another fun doing was a little lunch for four ladies from our church. Three of us visited a (slightly) older lady, bringing along a lunch of egg salad, celery and peanut butter, and a warm fruit pie. She was delighted, and we enjoyed her immaculately decorated home. What a treat! I got no photos except this gorgeous poinsettia.

The next day Adam and I went to the Episcopalians' Christmas Tea. Lovely tables were set.

I couldn't resist sneaking a peak at the pattern names of some of the china. Isn't this one lovely?

The nibble were quite yummy. I had a few of these.

We sang carols and silly songs and laughed. That was Tuesday. Wednesday it was very cold. Adam made soup. Today I returned to a local assisted living facility with a friend, to sing Christmas songs there with the sweet ladies. I knitted at prayer shawl group this morning, and Adam spent the day in "big town" with an elderly parishioner at several doctors' offices. Tomorrow we have been invited to a Christmas dinner. The busy season is upon us! It's rather exhausting, as Trixie demonstrates:

I apologize for her somewhat indecent posture. She is "draping" - hanging her head over the edge of the couch.

She's also stretching out with her ever-lengthening legs. We call it "long-doggin'" around here. She's so snoozy at night.

She's about 13 pounds now. Her coat is slowly fluffing and growing. You can see the tufts around her fanny. She's also quite fluffy around her neck, and she's developing feathering on her tail, and wavy patterns on her back, plus several cow licks on her chest.

Her silly face, however, remains rather common and speckled, and with her big ears makes her look like a small shepherd of some sort. We haven't figured out her genes yet.
Adam continues to bake and I continue to knit, but nothing new or extraordinary. We await the arrival of the two girls sometime in the next week or so. Then Christmas will seem to have come. For now, we are doing "social Christmas" and being snoozy with the dogs. Oh ... and watching "The Crown" on netflix. If there's anything more unusual that the British monarchy, it's the BBC's imagination of the British monarchy!