family celebrations

It's been a lovely couple of days of family celebrations. On Christmas Eve we went to evening church (at which I worked the powerpoint presentation) and then came home to our special dinner of pan-fried haddock, potatoes, curried parsnips, and green beans. Then, according to our family's tradition, we opened our presents from the nuclear family. Paul's big box to Mum and Dad turned out to be a little slip of paper announcing new kitchen hardware. Micah sent Mum the Cambridge t-shirt she had wanted and Dad got a few CS Lewis related items.

On Christmas day we headed over to Grammie and Grandad's at the leisurely time of 10am. We were ready to go an hour before that but they reported that no cousins were even awake! How old we must be all getting. The present mound at Grammie's was as large as ever and we were fuelled by the boxes of chocolate that got opened near the beginning. We had chowder for lunch and spent the rest of the day lounging, reading new books, and playing cards.

Boxing Day is our big dinner day. We arrived at Aunt Christeen's and Uncle James' just after 1pm to sit down to a massive dinner of turkey, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, turnip, potatoes, two types of stuffing, beans, carrots, parsnips, cranberry sauce, and gravy. The afternoon was spent by varying groups of relatives watching movies (Step Up was the one I saw), taking pictures with Paul, playing cards (45s is our family game), and chatting. A lovely day all in all.

We missed Micah and Anna this year--the first time we have not all been together. I hope that their partridge was nice!

Merry Christmas to everyone. May you be blessed by the coming of Jesus to live with us.