Adventures in Family Land

We've been immersed in Family Land for the past week, just the same as many of you.

Here are some random highlights from the week:

• On Christmas Eve as the pastor read from Matthew the story of the 3 Wise Men bringing "treasures" of gold, etc to the baby Jesus, the littlest member of the family (aged almost 3) looked up from the coloring in her lap and eclaimed "Treasures? Gold? OOOOO!"
• Cleanup after Christmas Day's dinner for 25 was accomplished under the capable direction of my niece Txbelle and St. Betty's daughter, The Defender. Muchas gracias, damas!
• Portia's SIL turned out to be an excellent cook, contributing great side dishes and coffee cake to the menus for the week.
• Having the aforementioned almost 3 year old and her brother, age 4 1/2, run down the stairs on Christmas morning to see what Santa brought was just priceless.
• Olivia and Beatrice made a new friend, Ricky the Min-Pin, who was the perfect canine guest.
• I got several books from authors I'm not familiar with, but are the among the favorites of the givers. New authors! New books! Yippee.
• It was also my Kindle (tm) Christmas. I downloaded and am reading my first book on it--the new biography of Andrew Jackson. Using the gadget does take some getting used to, but I think I'm going to like it. After I've used it awhile, I'll do a review.
• For the first time, Babs didn't spend all of the holiday with us. She left Christmas afternoon to join the BF in Alabama and meet his family. Stay tuned.
• The Old Marine, now the CEO of a food company, brought over a basket full of their latest product--excellent Spanish olive oil. Yum.
• This last Christmas in the big house was definitely one of the very best. What a blessing! I'm so thankful.
  

Now it's back to the "real" world....