St. Louis Christmas II

Part of my family meets for worship at my brother Dave's house. So far its just my brother Dave's family, Becky's family, mom and dad and the Bright family. But when I came the whole family met together for Sunday worship. It was a blessing to see all the little ones sitting there. We pray the Lord will give them new hearts soon so that they will be part of the spiritual family as well.

St. Louis Christmas

William and I flew to St. Louis in mid December to spend 5 days with my family. They were fun days packed full with seeing family and friends. Mom, dad, Becky, Brian, William and I spent a Saturday at St. Charles. We saw the Christmas parade, wished Mr. Scrouge a Merry Christmas and ate chesnuts roasted over an open fire.

Christmas Decorations

Here a few shots of our house at Christmas time. I didn't take any of the outside this year, but we have wreaths on every window on the first floor and a single candle in every window.

This doesn't relate to Christmas but we added several permanent "decorations" to our house right before Thanksgiving. We had a copy facsimile of a 1775 map of NC framed and matted and then we hung it over the mantle. The frame and matting was what we decided to give to each other for our 1st anniversary. Your 1st anniversary is paper so we thought that would be kind of cool.

We bought an area rug from Lowes for our living room and we also had two prints that Susan and Randy gave us for our wedding matted and framed. These we hung in our dining room.

This is a "fuzzy book" my dad had when he was a little boy. Russ is not a huge fan of Santa but so far he has gone along with it. However, we didn't get William's picture taken with the jolly fat elf this year.

I was so happy to be able to put up the snow people this year. With the exception of last year, I've celebrated Christmas with this snow family every year since I was one or two. After last Christmas, mom and dad gave them to us. William loved them. Every morning when we got him up we would walk into the living room and they were the first things he would see. He loves people and he must have recognized the snow people's faces and thought they were real. He would always smile really big and wave his arms. It was so cute.

Getting Ready for Christmas

Being 1000 miles away from my mom and dad and sisters and brothers is hard to say the least. I always feel a tad disloyal when I choose to stay home for the important holidays rather than travel to be with them. However, I know they understand. After all, it was Dad who taught us the importance of establishing traditions within the immediate family circle.

So we stayed home for both Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. I did very much enjoy that. I was able to devote more time to getting our house decorated and the special cookies and foods prepared. But I didn't get everything accomplished that I had hoped to. Nowhere near, if the truth be known. Christmas is a lot of work!! And it takes a lot of preparation and planning ahead of time for the mom a.k.a., me, to be able to do what needs to be done AND to enjoy it. That's what I've learned in the last two Christmas.


Setting out to find a tree. We only visited one lot this year.

I wonder how many couples have to work out the issue of "how to decorate a Christmas Tree". Thankfully I have a husband who is more than willing to allow me complete freedom in all matters of home and holiday decore'. Not only that, but he even goes along with all the particulars and enjoys the process with me. So all our ornaments "hang". Which means they sway back and forth unimpeded if the tree gets jostled a bit. No ornaments are hung on light wires, although I did have to take one or two off and little ornaments are hung at the top and then the ornaments get progressivley bigger as you get to the bottom of the tree.

The whale tail ornament we got on our honeymoon so long ago.

Sunrise

I know its been a long time since I posted, but tonight, while my husband is watching the playoffs, football for those who don't know, I'm blogging. I've scheduled a new post each day so for awhile you can visit every day and know you'll see something new.

Christmas in Williamsburg

The first week of December we visited Williamsburg. This is the second Christmas trip we have made to that historic town and we loved it. We love just walking the streets and feeling the history of the place. There is nothing like it! The decorations are beautiful, the people are friendly… It just can’t be topped. This year we took a tour sponsored by the garden club and got to see buildings that are not usually open. William did wonderful the first day.

The second day we were scheduled to see the “Grand Illumination”. Once a year at Christmas time they shoot fireworks in 3 different places in town. The fireworks light up the buildings and the sky. There are also small fires all along the sidewalks as well as lanterns. We hear it’s beautiful. We wanted William to be well rested and ready for the evening’s activities so we stayed in our hotel room and made sure he got his two naps and lots of food. We left around 3:30 and headed for the town. We don’t have any explanation for it but almost as soon as we hit the historic area William started crying. Not just little whimpers but loud cries of misery. Nothing would comfort him, and we tried pretty much everything. So after about 30 minutes we left. No Grand Illumination for us. It was McDonalds in the hotel room. And William, you may ask. He cooed and laughed and smiled the whole time he was up and then happily went off to sleep.

This is where the President of the Williamsburg Foundation lives.

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The Second Day

We have just arrived for the festivities of the Grand Illimination

A handbell performance on one of several outdoor stages

Our McDonalds Feast

Thanksgiving at the Ayscues

This year was the first year I hosted Thanksgiving. It was a wonerful time and I enjoyed every minute of it. All the Ayscues came and we rejoiced in God's goodness to us.