Christmas 2009 is now history...and what a time it was!

We had lots of plans this Christmas and the following pictures tell the tale of some of them. We had wonderful times with friends and family. December started out with 3 dinners one each week...one at our friends', the Fould's house, one at ours, and one at our friends', the Smiths' house. We have known each other for a looooong time...and live in kind of a triangle from each other...about an hour apart from each other. We planned on sleeping over at each other's houses the night of these parties...so we could have some glasses of Christmas cheer. Each one of us cook and decorate differently...so that makes it interesting. Each party is a little different and each party was wonderful!



We started at Barb's where she had a wonderful array of appetizers to start us out with.....

Their two kitties Doozi and Sunshine entertain us between courses always...and are sooo cute!Then we tucked in to a wonderful, fabulous meal of paella! What a great time! Wonderful meal and beautiful setting! Click on this picture to make it bigger and see that beautiful paella!

The next dinner ...about a week later was at our house....we had appetizers in the parlor....

Here is how it looked before I put all the food out actually....pics reversed! Mike got me the wonderful centerpiece for one of my Christmas gifts!And here is the table before we started eating.....being the hostess I never took another one until we were done! But I made Cocquille St. Jacques....thanks to Julia Child! Yummy if I do say so myself! And I heard everyone else thought so too.....

The next dinner was at the Smiths who live on the family farm in the country....a wonderful spot! Jan's hobby is trains and dollhouses and her train is really fun to watch!The table before......They made a fabulous beef roast stuffed with mushrooms which was to die for....should have got a shot of that!Thanks Ron for taking this picture...I am so rarely in them! I think all three of us had spectacular trees....should have taken one of Barbs which is the biggest and absolutely wonderful!The Smiths have beautiful horses on the farm.....Ron relating to one.....







My sister and brother in law came for the holidays and during that time we got together in St. Louis with some dear old friends of both Susie and me.....here at Seamus McDaniels in Dogtown are: Kevin, John, Lynn, Susie, Dennis....And ME





Before my relatives arrived on Christmas Eve...we had the kids and grandkids over on a Sunday for Christmas Brunch and gift exchange...as usual they were darling. Hats were the item this year for both grandkids....Luke.....Geeez...look at those eyelashes! He is sooo handsome...but does not really like his picture taken at this age.....My wonderful niece Becca knit this hat for Ella....she looks so cute in it!And she loves to have her picture taken at the age she is at!

Then Christmas Eve came and my sister, brother in law, and nephew came in on a rainy Christmas Eve! Thank goodness it was not ice or snow. It did snow that night and we did have a white Christmas which is so rare for Missouri! But was pretty. We were very glad we did not have to go anywhere that day though.......

We had Prime Rib....which turned out great! First time I ever cooked it!

Corey, Mike, Susie and Dennis before dinner......We had so much fun with them...but it did involve a lot of running around to get Corey to the bus station to go see his dad and then to the airport...we handled it though and the weather pretty much cooperated. And we were so glad he was here!!



We got some rather bad news a couple of days after Christmas. Our brother had had chest pains while he was at the hospital for another medical emergency of another family member in he and his wife's family. He was rushed to the cath lab and ended up having 2 stents put in. Very scary for us. Heart disease runs in our family and our mom died of it way too young. He is fine now though. We did drive down to Springfield to see him and so glad we did! He was in the hospital for a few days and he and his wife, Pam did not make it here as planned for New Years. We missed them! But are glad all ended well!



Paul....another brother, his wife Judith and their son Evan did arrive for New Years from Chicago though and we had a nice lasagne dinner the night they arrived....

We went to a fun old quaint restuarant near here on the Gasconade River for New Years Eve dinner. It used to be an old mill and will be fun to go to in good weather and sit outside and watch the river. But that night....Great food....great company!We all then came back here and played games and drank champagne until midnight. Missed Steve, Pam....and David and Nat...but was great to be together! Had lots of fun during the families visits...and the weather was not too bad. Played cards, watched DVD's, caught up with talk....ate a lot. What you do during the holidays. They were great in our new home and we hope we have many more like them with family and our best friends! Thank you all for coming! And Happy 2010 to all who read this!!!!