People

Second Christmas

As I mentioned in the previous post, we had a multi-part Christmas this year. Actually, that’s normal. We have a multi-part Christmas almost every year. So, we had a normal Christmas this year. After breakfast and presents at Cathy’s mom’s house, we went to my mom’s and had Second Christmas. There were a few more people for this one, as you can see. Mom has posted a picture on Facebook from her end of the table. I’m in that one. So, here’s one that she is in, along with everyone else. This was taken before we popped our Christmas crackers. I took a few with all of us wearing our little hats, but it isn’t as good so you’ll have to imagine that, instead.

Grandma and Dorothy

We had a wonderful Christmas with multiple parts. After emptying our stockings at home, we went to Cathy’s mom’s house (a.k.a. Grandma number 1). Our friend Betsy joined us, which was a real treat. We had our traditional breakfast of pancakes, poached eggs, bacon, and sausage. After breakfast and a nice cup of coffee, we opened presents. I took pictures with Betsy and Cathy in them, as well, but I really like this picture of Dorothy with her grandma. I hope you like it, too.

Gretchen

We had our last X-Factor of the year this evening and enjoyed a festive time with traditional Christmas pizza (well, it was traditional American pizza, anyway, which is probably close enough). The youth enjoyed our annual gift swap game (you know, one of those where “stealing” other peoples’ gifts is actually encouraged). I took pictures, to no one’s surprise. This one, of Gretchen, turned out very nicely, don’t you think?

Thanks to all the people who make this X-Factor happen. Thanks to our youth, obviously, for coming and being so enthusiastic. Thanks to their parents who bring them each week (even if you carpool so you don’t personally come every time). And a special thank you to Hannah, who helps us get set up before the youth arrive and helps us get cleaned up before we leave. You’re a real blessing.

Lessons and Carols

We went to Fourth Presbyterian Church this evening for their Festival of Lessons and Carols, a celebration of the Christmas story. We enjoyed the sanctuary, youth, and covenant (children’s) choirs accompanied by a fairly full orchestra. We sang or listened to 13 different songs (somehow appropriate for Friday the thirteenth), along with 9 passages of scripture. Not everyone’s cup of tea, perhaps, but we really enjoyed it. It wasn’t the sort of thing to take a lot of pictures of, but I did take a few, including this one from our seat towards the rear of the sanctuary.

Dorothy, Sara, and Jessie

We had our second annual Christmas caroling outing this evening. Like last year, we rigged up a pick-up truck with drums and room for a base guitar player. Then behind that was a long trailer with a table set up for a keyboard. The rest of the trailer had bales of straw for folks to sit on. It was quite a bit cooler this year than last, so folks bundled up with blankets in addition to their jackets (and I even rolled my sleeves down and put on a pair of gloves!). We had a good time and enjoyed being together, both out in the neighborhood and back for hot chocolate and cookies when we were done singing.

Tim and Jeffrey

We had X-Factor this evening and, as is so often the case, I took some pictures. Naturally, some of them are good and some not so good. I find it interesting which people are easy to photograph well and which are not, and find that it has little to do with good looks, somewhat surprisingly.

Anyway, this is Tim (or does he prefer Timmy?) and Jeffrey (or would he like Jeff?). Like the hats, boys.

Our Thanksgiving Gathering

As mentioned in yesterday’s post, we had homemade pizza for our Thanksgiving meal on Thursday. Well, we had our proper Thanksgiving today, with my mom and family. It was your traditional meal with turkey, stuffing, gravy, and two types of squash (leftovers of the acorn squash with Gruyere cheese I made yesterday and George’s butternut squash with maple syrup). There were three types of cranberry sauce, salad, asparagus, a puff pastry dish with farro and feta cheese (which is really, really good). For dessert there were a few pies and cakes as well as an assortment of ice creams.

Julia

It was a short week, with only three days of school for Dorothy and of work for Cathy and me, but somehow it seemed like a long week. We were all tired and ready for a break. When Wednesday evening finally came, Dorothy asked if she could go hang out with Julia, who was home for a few days from college. We dropped her off and then went out to dinner, but of course we stopped in for a few minutes to visit, first. Visit and take a few pictures.

Cathy, Pancakes, and Syrup

In the continuing story of the celebration of Cathy’s most recent birthday, the three of us went out for dinner this evening. It wasn’t what you might call a fancy dinner. We had thought to go to a small Italian place that we like pretty well. Unfortunately they are closed on Mondays so we had to fall back on Plan B. That, as it turned out, was a trip to IHOP. Not gourmet, particularly, but it was good and it was and is always nice to be together, just the three of us. Happy continued birthday!

Dorothy’s Braid

I was late getting around to taking any pictures today. I was taking pictures of small things in the kitchen when Dorothy came in with a new braid in her hair. I asked if I could take a picture of that, and here it is. It is called a fishtail braid. Perhaps we’ll resume our regularly scheduled collection of fall color photographs tomorrow. Who can tell?

Katie and her Kids

We only had 32 trick or treaters for Halloween this year. Of course it started to rain about the time the kids started to appear so I suspect that kept the numbers down a bit. Katie came by with her three, and they stayed at the door long enough for me to get their picture. I got another one, later, of Porter and Joseph, which is good but not nearly so cute.

Henry and Greta

Last Wednesday I posted three pictures, two of Calvin and one of Henry. All three pictures had other people with these beautiful boys. I know I’ve already posted a photo for today but I can’t resist posting this one, of Henry and his mom, Greta. It’s just too good a picture to pass up.

Generally I’ve been trying to fill this space to the left of the photograph. It isn’t necessary, I know, but it’s forcing me to write a bit more as an exercise. In this case, I’m just going to let the photo speak for itself.

Fritz

Dorothy was going out to our friends’ farm this evening and rather than let her get a ride, which would have made a lot of sense, I took her myself. Mostly it’s because I like the excuse to visit the farm. We got there just before dusk, which wasn’t the best time for pictures, but I took a few anyway, including this one of the youngest farmer, Fritz. Like most very young people, he didn’t know what to make of me at first but after a few pictures, and after I showed them to him, he warmed up to me a little. Enough for something of a smile, anyway.

I took some with Anna in them and a few with Dorothy holding Fritz but none of them are as good as this one, which I like.

Donna and Calvin

Gretchen and Henry

Katie and Calvin

Greta was at church this evening and had her two boys with her. Henry and Calvin have appeared here before but I couldn’t resist adding a few more of them.

First we have Donna with Calvin, then Gretchen and his older brother, Henry, and finally Katie with Calvin again. As you can see, Calvin hasn’t quite got “smile for the camera“ figured out, but it won’t be long, I’m sure.

Hannah

On Thursday I got a text message from Dorothy at school asking me (in all caps) why I didn’t tell her she was in town. I played dumb and pretended that I didn’t know what Dorothy was talking about. Dorothy isn’t a big fan of surprises. Still, it isn’t always about her and I had been asked to keep it quiet, so I kept it quiet.

On Saturday we were fortunate enough to have Hannah visit us for a while. Not long enough for Dorothy, but we’ll take what we can get. During the day I decided the red leaves of this dogwood tree would make a good backdrop for Hannah’s flaxen hair. She was nice enough to let me take a few pictures of her and this is one of my favorites.

It was nice to see you, not-daughter.

Donna and Preston

When the only pictures I have for a particular day are taken at church or school or another “gathering” event, I often go through them with Cathy and Dorothy to select the best picture to post here. It’s fun, of course, to take pictures of people making funny faces but in general (and this isn’t a hard and fast rule) I try to post pictures here that are not going to embarrass anyone. That’s not to say that the people in them are going to like the pictures, of course. If that was my criteria, I’d often have a hard time posting pictures of some people because some (or many) people don’t like pictures of themselves as a matter of policy.

Donna generally doesn’t like having her picture taken but was happy to pose with Preston her son, who is one of those people always happy to have his picture taken as long as he can make a face or strike a pose. In this case, they were both relaxed and happy and I think you’ll agree, it’s a pretty good picture.

Dorothy at Maureen’s

With Cathy away for a few days, we had to make special arrangements for Dorothy’s after-school pick-up for some of this week. Tuesday’s, however, are relatively easy. Starting sometime last year, Dorothy would go to her friend Julia’s house after her piano lesson on Tuesday and they would work on homework together. Well, this year, Julia is away at college. Also, Dorothy isn’t taking piano this year, because she needs as many evenings free as possible for homework. If you think these changes have altered Dorothy’s schedule significantly, you’d be wrong, however. Julia’s mom, our wonderful friend, Maureen, has been picking Dorothy up many Tuesday’s and she spends the evening with her other family, working on homework, ready assigned reading, and otherwise enjoying herself. So, this picture is of Dorothy when I went to pick her up later this evening.