Catching Up

 What a difference a year can make!  This time last year my mother was in the hospital and I was just recovering after we both had  suffered from a terrible bout of Influenza.  We hadn't even celebrated Christmas yet. It was a long winter where I cared for my mother in our home as she slowly recovered and when she was finally able to go home in late March there was the anxiety of making sure she was strong and safe enough to be on her own.  Now here we are, and she has recovered much of her strength and was able to have my niece take her back to North Carolina to spend Christmas with her family.

I however, seem to be in a bit of slump.  It seems since our trip to Europe that I have been peddling as fast as I can and still not keeping up.  It seems like it has been a merry-go-round of  watching over my mom, taking care of grandchildren, hosting a church life group, spending time on an intense Bible study for my precepts group and still trying to make the perfect Thanksgiving and Christmas for everyone.  Things are quiet now for the moment, and it is time to reflect on how to bring back some balance.  I love the Lord. I love my family and I have missed my blogging,  So, I will figure it out and I will be back with joy in my heart and a spring in my step. On that note may I wish you all a wonderful new year filled with many happy adventures.

Now that I have gotten that off my chest here are a few (well maybe more than as few) photos from our holiday season which, in spite of some exhaustion, was really quite lovely.

We started out with two feasts on Thanksgiving Day.  My youngest son and his wife cooked their first Turkey which turned out perfectly.

After an early dinner with them we went over to our older son's home where I cooked a second meal for his family as our daughter-in-law had just had a baby a couple of weeks before and still needed to rest.  I had made most of the side dishes the day before, so it was just a matter of putting a turkey breast into the oven. My mother, bless her, baked the pies.

A few days after Thanksgiving we had a 92nd birthday and early Christmas celebration with my mother.  She left for North Carolina a week later.

We went to our granddaughter's Christmas program at her school.  She had the part of Mother Mary.

Our younger son and DIL took us out for an evening to look at the Christmas lights.  We started out at the arboretum in Everett and ended up at the light festival outside the Tulalip Casino.  It was wet and cold but still quite beautiful.

The girls came over to bake Christmas cookies.  They did a wonderful job rolling out and cutting the cookies all by themselves.

There was also lots of good cooking and hours spent decorating the house for Christmas Day which we celebrated with family and friends. 

Then on the Sunday after Christmas, our grandson was baptized, and we returned to our son's house to celebrate after church.

There are no pictures for New Years because we stayed home alone with our feet up. We stayed up long enough to see the New Year Space Needle Fireworks celebration at midnight.  Then we slept in until 10;00 the next morning! Whew! It was a whirlwind season.

Now that we are all caught up, and as this new year begins, it is my hope that I will be able to stay in touch a little more. Until next time, "May God bless us each and every one!"

Adieu!