Monday, December 28, 2015

christmas aftermath, special visitors, and an ice storm

 Hello there! It's been a long and wonderful weekend of celebrating with family and I'm finally just now getting a breather so that I can post about what's been going on. Christmas Eve, Brian and I met up with his sisters for dinner. My father-in-law was supposed to join us, but he wasn't feeling up to it. He's in his early 80's and not in good physical or mental health. Brian thought maybe we could go back to his dad's place to visit him and his oldest sister told him not to bother - that Dad would be sleeping. It's so sad and hard to see parents decline. 

Christmas Day, we went to my sister's house where we joined her family, Mom, our cousin, and some friends of my sister's that have joined us on other holidays. Tim had to work on both Christmas Eve and Christmas, but before his shift on Christmas day, he drove out to my sister's house to be with us for 1-1/2 hours. 


We exchanged gifts, stuffed our faces with appetizers and desserts, had some wine, and played Cards Against Humanity for hours.


 Tim was finally able to come home in the afternoon on the 26th, so that's when the three of us had our own little quiet Christmas. 


 As most of you know, Tim's a photographer and one of the gifts he requested was this awesome professional tripod. He was very happy. It's even in his favorite colors - black and red. :-)

We ordered Chinese food and settled in with a movie - Samsara. Have you seen this movie? It's a non-narrative 2011 documentary that was filmed over five years in 25 countries around the world. The cinematography was mind-blowing.


Despite the ice storm going on today, we had two tiny ~ and very cute ~ visitors to our house. I dug out some old baby toys from storage, and Mr. Cutie Patootie was busy and happy the entire time they were here.


Oh, how I love squishy new babies!


The babes' mom, who is like a niece to me, is now married and lives in Canada, so I rarely get to see her. She's in town visiting her parents, so she and her husband, along with the two babies, came to visit us today. Loved holding a baby again - it's been so long.


 Even though I'm glad Christmas is over ~ and I de-Christmas'd the house this afternoon ~ I am feeling blessed and content. And needing to go back to my regular healthy eating. :-)



14 comments:

  1. Oh the weather, it really is treacherous for so many lately. Be safe! Babies are wonderful! Glad you were able to enjoy some time with them! Fun!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I painted walls on both Christmas Eve and Christmas, and cooked a crock pot roast. Tim's beard is getting l-o-n-g!
    Brenda

    ReplyDelete
  3. It looks as though you had plenty to keep you busy for Christmas, Melanie. The holidays have been a bittersweet time for our family as our daughter's husband, Jimmy, lost his battle to kidney cancer in September. We are doing our best to get by but it isn't easy. Still, like you, I feel very blessed to have spent a lot of good times with family and friends over the holidays. Your little visitors are adorable and you look so beautiful in the photo with the baby. That ice storm certainly sounds and looks pretty scarey. As for us down in South Carolina, we are having quite a heat wave right now with highs in the seventies. It's crazy! I am wishing you a very happy, healthy and blessed new year in 2016!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm so glad you had a good Christmas! I am home with my Charlie kitty by my side and trying to get some rest.
    hugs,
    Linda

    ReplyDelete
  5. What sweet little ones!
    You and I could start a mothers of bearded sons club. I guess they will have warm faces in this cold weather.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm so glad to see you had a nice Christmas, Melanie - isn't that game so much fun? And when played with wine, all the better!! :) Hope you are all safe and warm in the ice storm tonight. xo

    ReplyDelete
  7. It looks like you had a great Christmas and I'm glad that you, Brian and Tim were able to celebrate together with the different schedules. Neat gifts! Is Tim getting work as a photographer?

    The weather was indeed crappy. Abby had to travel to the city for basketball practice-she coaches. She said the roads were awful. The I prayed Al would leave work early. I so worry about car travel and bad road conditions. Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of my near fatal car crash.

    If we don't touch base, Happy New Year to all of you guys!

    Jane x

    ReplyDelete
  8. We were on the far west edge of that storm system, and got much less snow and wind than predicted. It is bone-chillingly cold, though.
    I played Cards Against Humanity last spring with my kids, my nieces, and their husband/fiance, and the girls' mom, and it was hilarious.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh TWO little ones to play with...they are just darling. I hope that your weather gets better / so many of you are just getting pummeled with one storm after another in all varieties :(

    I love that Christmas tree shot ; so pretty !

    ReplyDelete
  10. I'm glad that you had a nice Christmas. Where does your son work. My husband had to work on Christmas eve and will on New Years eve.......jut til 6 but it is hard to plan things. We had a nice Christmas as well. So far just tons of rain here. Happy New Year. (Babies are just wonderful, aren't they?)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hi Melanie, I'm so happy to hear that you had a great Christmas and you look so beautiful with that baby in your lap. There's nothing as sweet as cuddling a baby :)
    Be careful in the storm and stay in if you can.
    Connie :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi Melanie,
    Yes, the holidays can be hard on the digestion...all that food! I guess that is why New Years comes at the tail end of the holiday. We can start over.
    The baby is really cuddly-looking. Oh, that ice storm was wild, wasn't it? I could hear the sleet pinging on my sky-light all day. And this morning, when I went out to shovel the public sidewalk in front of my building, the snow was so, so heavy to move.
    I had to slide the shovel to the embankment before I picked it up.
    Ginene

    ReplyDelete
  13. I hope that your weather settles down, you don't lose power and that Brian doesn't have to drive in such crazy weather.

    Your little visitors are adorable. My sister was supposed to come visit on Monday with her grandchildren, but I had an infection in my eye so I didn't want to be near them. My eye is better so we are meeting for lunch in Beverly Hills tomorrow. At least I still get to see the little ones.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hi Melanie, it looks like you had such a nice Christmas. I enjoyed seeing your family celebrations. I love the photo of you with the baby girl! Aww. It's nice to have little ones around, especially at Christmas. I hope your father-in-law is doing okay. We'll be de-Christmasing on Friday and I can't wait (but don't tell my family, haha). I wish you all a very happy New Year.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to leave a kind comment - I read and appreciate each one!