Family Christmas

This was my little tree. It was all of three feet high and I didn't put lights on it because I don't pay for electricity here. My dear landlord is a little sensitive about wasting energy. Maybe next Christmas I will be bolder. I did buy one package of ornaments. then I made bows from wired ribbons and it really came out quite beautiful. I didn't take it down till the second week of January and it had been so fresh that even after having been up nearly two months, there were few pine needles that had fallen off. And of course, the smells were wonderful. I can't remember the last time I had a tree. This was tiny and perfect.

We celebrated Christmas eve with family. This is PJ, Philip's son. All grown up. And I think he looks just like Phil. He even dresses like him. Phil is my second brother, a year older than I. Just a lovely charming young man. We received the news a couple of weeks ago that PJ has proposed and my brother Phil is overwhelmed with emotion and cannot be a happier man at this point in his life. Very very nice.

This is Linda's tree. I took maybe twenty pictures of this thing and this is the best i could get. It was big and full of ornaments. Whenever I would go over to spend time with Mom, she would get up and click the switch to turn it on. Mom loves her trees.

Linda always prepares a lot of munchies. We also had pork pies. We grew up on pork pies for the holidays. Linda made the filling and Mom and I put the pies together. I would love to say that I made the pie crusts. Had I done them at home I probably would have. But there were I think nine pies and six or eight little individual pies and we used pre-made crusts. Hey - I wonder if my grandmother would have used these if she had the option in order to save time???

This is Suzanne demonstrating another modern electronic something or other that I know nothing about. She and Linda are quite into gadgets. So is Melanie and Hyrum. I listen and watch fascinated. but it all goes over my head. How I love my four sewing machines.

This is my baby sister Linda who is a mere whisper of the woman I hugged when I returned from Oregon at the end of 2011. The young girl next to her is Chelsea who, the lst time I saw her, was what - twelve years old? All grown up. Everyone is all grown up. It was great to see her.

Next Christmas will be a little different as we have decided that gift giving should be not so important anymore. I of course will always make my yearly ornaments. So I will always be giving. For me it is a peaceful time. But the world is getting a bit crazy-overboard with the whole shopping thing.

That is what was nice this year and mentoring Sydney. We had enough time before Christmas that I got to teach her enough techniques so that she was able to make presents for everyone. She was a favorite in her family. And she does have a rather large extended family. She was very proud of her accomplishments and so was everyone else. That is why I always loved Christmas and always will.

I am beginning work on the new holiday. This is going to be a good one, but then, I say that every year.