Saturday, December 26, 2015

Merry Christmas!


Christmas 2015.
I had really missed having a full sized tree.
I gave our old one away in 2009, and from 2010 - 2014, we had a miniature white tree. It wore out so I gave it away in January. I longed for a full size tree, but Robert thought we didn't need one. He did say if I made space for it by giving away our piano, we could get one. I had wanted to sell the piano but although I tried for many years, it never sold.
So I offered it for free on Craigslist and it was gone in one week.
Here is our beautiful new tree which we bought at Michael's craft store for 1/2 price on Halloween Day.


Happy Christmas!
Matthew, Robert and I.



Matthew came over after work on Christmas Eve.
We had a little banquet of poutine with cheese curds from Quebec, a homemade Caesar salad (Matthew showed me how to make the dressing), Italian meat balls, and butter chicken veggie rolls.


Kelsie loves to pose in photos too.



Christmas Day we had a delicious turkey dinner with the trimmings.
Colin was the only one who joined us this year.


Fresh turkey from IGA, mashed potatoes and gravey, pickles, fresh cranberries, fruit salad, stuffing, green salad and veggies. The last 3 items were courtesy of the Braun family who had their catered dinner on Dec 24. Alas, Robert, Matthew and Colin had to work, so we couldn't attend.



The feast close up.


My parents came over after the dinner, and we Skyped with Marlene in St Louis for 45 minutes. We had dessert and sang Christmas carols and watched Mr. Bean's Christmas on DVD. A great time was had by all. My parents hadn't been over here since last Christmas! Kelsie was very excited to see them again.


I was so tired I forgot to take a picture of the food, except for something new; a marzipan pig from Germany. He was delicious.


Matthew spoiled us with nice gifts. He gave us a DVD, "Peaky Blinders"; lots of edible goodies including almond bark for Robert and chocolate gummy bears and Purdy's hedgehogs for me; an Anne Perry Christmas book for me; goat soap; and a subscription for 5 months for Netflix. The latter is an interesting concept; hundreds of movies we can view either on our TV, our computer, or our iPads. He's such a nice guy.
Robert gave me a lovely poinsettia arrangement, chocolate, a gift certificate for Chapter's, and a wonderful curved and cordless keyboard for my computer.
It was a very nice Christmas.
By Loretta Houben

2 comments:

Simply Shelley said...

Looks like it was a lovely Christmas for all of you Loretta. Thank you again for the fun Christmas Dollie letter. I will be writing you soon. Things are coming around to a new normal for me. Blessings on the New Year.....Shelley

Loretta said...

You're so welcome, Shelley. I love writing real letters and it seems like I know you because we've corresponded so much online! I'm glad you are feeling better. May you too have a wonderful New Year.