Christmas!

Christmas came early when Sarah arrived Tuesday night after her two-day drive from Utah.  She and the dogs stayed Monday night in Burlington, CO.  She and Steve and I drove over to Emily's Wednesday morning for piano lessons and to visit.  Our return home took much longer than planned or expected because Manchester Boulevard, the main artery in Emily's neck of the woods, was a solid red line of traffic thanks to everyone in the whole west county out buying last-minute Christmas gifts.  The plan was to gather at Saint Charles at 4:00 for our annual family shopping/eating event but we were late (and picking up Sally from the groomer didn't help), Beckie had to work so she couldn't be there at all, Elise was delayed by her work and got a later start from Columbia, Melanie briefly got lost, and Steven and Tamara - who had driven all the way from Ohio that day - needed to get back to Columbia soon because Tamara was not doing well.  She is four weeks out from her surgery (complete hysterectomy) and she was experiencing some complications.  She ended up in the ER once they got home and her doctor was able to take care of her issues but she could have ended up hemorrhaging!  So, shopping the streets of Saint Charles was cut short and dinner was without Elise and Steven and Tamara.  It started with such promise and ended kind of sad.  Thankfully, Emily managed to snap a few gathering photos, when it was still in the promise stage....

And, hey - look who Steve ran in to at the English Shoppe!!

Thursday also started out with such promise.  Beckie came over to visit and to pick up Elise and Sarah to do some shopping and to grab lunch.  After she dropped them back off here at home, she left to get ready to go to work when she called Elise with bad news:  her co-worker, who was not feeling well Tuesday night but thought it was just a cold, was even sicker on Wednesday so he went home and on Thursday, he tested positive for Covid!  That meant Beckie was exposed and she had spent the morning with all of us meaning we were also potentially exposed!  Little Fox had to close so Beckie had to go help do that.  And then she needed to try to get tested herself.  The omicron variant has been increasing exponentially here in Saint Louis this past week and getting in to be tested two days before Christmas (or buying a home-test kit) is practically impossible but amazingly, Beckie's boss was able to get her in to be tested Thursday night and happily, she tested negative.  But, before we knew all that, there was a huge black cloud of concern as to what our Christmas was going to look like.....not having the Southerlands over, Beckie not going to Springfield.  And, I cancelled the temple appointment I had made for Steve, Sarah, Elise, and me for Thursday evening and we drove around to look at Christmas lights instead.  So, Beckie's negative result cleared all that cloud away.  Yay.  Below is one of the more over-the-top houses we saw on our lights viewing drive....

Christmas Eve was lovely.  Steve and didn't have to go anywhere so we stayed home and puttered.  Elise and Sarah ventured out again to assorted stores in the morning.  Sarah went over to Beckie's in the afternoon to help with the Bethlehem dinner and Elise did her gingerbread house.

then we all went over to Beckie's to eat her amazing meal and to read from Luke 2 and to watch Scrooge.

Christmas morning, I picked up Sam Carpentero to spend the day with us (sans her bulldog, Blue, though since four dogs are plenty in this small house).  And, Beckie came over and we enjoyed Christmas breakfast before Beckie left to spend Christmas and the weekend with Kyle and Micah in Springfield.

When I headed out to pick up Sam, I saw what some bum did to our outside nativity in our front yard.  Happily, nothing was broken, just knocked down.  The Santa and sleigh next door was not touched, just our nativity, the atheists!

Christmas Eve and Day were unseasonably warm (in the 70's).  In fact, we had to open windows and turn on the attic fan Christmas morning to cool the house down.  It was actually colder in Phoenix than it was here!  But, it didn't stop us from having a very merry Christmas.  Emily and Joe and kids arrived around 3:00 for dinner. 

Afterwards, we actually gathered around the piano and sang carols!  The Southerlands performed the musical number they sang in church last Sunday - Noah played his cello -  and this is a blurry screen shot of the video we took of them singing (I am behind on the piano).  Then, we just kept on singing Christmas carols for about thirty minutes.  It was so fun.  The grandkids are finally at an age where they are interested in singing together.  I now look forward to, and will plan into the schedule, the singing of carols together every Christmas.  After the Southerlands left, we watched One Magic Christmas (we watched It's A Wonderful Life in the morning after breakfast.  Sam had never seen it!!!)  Earlier in the week, we watched The Man Who Invented Christmas, Eloise at Christmastime, The Lemon Drop Kid and the newer Miracle on 34th Street

Today was a peaceful Sunday-after-Christmas with only one hour of church and no other meetings.  Elise headed back to Columbia after lunch and a nap.  Sarah and Steve and I watched The Nativity and Christmas Story (not the "you'll shoot your eye out" one but a Scandanavian Santa origin story made in 2007).  And so our Christmas week is at an end....