More Christmas photos

Jonathan's special Christmas gift to me was a repair kit for my autoharp! He bought all new chording bars with the felt pads so that now I have all the chords! He spent a while Christmas morning switching the old to the new. Before he screwed it all down, he wanted me to strum some chords to make sure everything was all right.

It was not! The chords sounded worse than awful. Every one of them sounded awful. We were appalled. What had gone wrong? Jonathan finally figured out that he had put all the bars in backwards, but it was not his fault. The factory had done it backwards to start with. So, he carefully turned all the bars around, and sure enough, now the notes sounded right! I so appreciated Jonathan doing this for me for a lovely Christmas gift.

Christmas morning we had saved a couple gifts apiece to open. Here are Timmy and Danny with their new little tractors Jonathan got at Big R.
We thought we would get a picture of the Christmas mess after opening gifts Christmas eve, just for fun. Then I wasn't sure whether I wanted such a picture on my blog or not! Then I decided that this is the kind of picture that make people laugh and feel better about themselves, so here it is!

Remember it could be worse! I probably already had picked up a lot of wrapping paper! When you consider gifts for nine people... I hadn't expected so many gifts for each other, but the children had secretly knitted, bought, gotten free, or otherwise managed to put together quite a few gifts of their own!
Now below are Crystal and Rose on Christmas morning on our way to Grandma's, ready to drop off a Christmas fruit basket and fresh pineapple which we had forgotten to take to some friends the day before when Jonathan and the boys took them a load of firewood. It wasn't quite like the good deed we had just read about in a Christmas story by Louisa May Alcott, when a rich man took a load of firewood and other nice gift items to a poor family, because we were taking the firewood as exchange for help our friend gave us. But still, it was fun to do it on Christmas Eve. The boys and Jonathan helped stack it, and our friend said he would cover up the pile and surprise his wife with it on Christmas morning!

Christmas Eve Day while the boys were helping their dad with the load of firewood, getting hay and other errands, the girls and I went to Elizabeth to buy and bring home the newest addition to our farmette--a French Alpine buck goat. We put him in the back of the van, and he did great coming home. Now he is making friends with our does.

Christmas at Grandma and Pa Lucas's

Jonathan visits with Grandpa. On the table were some goodies we brought along: a big fruit basket; a dish with cheeseballs formed into a snowman (the hottest, spiciest middle belly ball got eaten up first!), a dish of fresh pineapple, and a big carton of chocolate mint whoopie pies. Here is one view of the long table (or should I say tables?) in Grandma and pa's dining and living room. The ladies in the very front are Jonathan's sisters, Esther on the left and Barbara on the right. Ruth, Dave's wife, is beyond Barbara, and across from her is her daughter, Cheryl who is a little older than Crystal. Stacy is between Esther and Cheryl but you wouldn't know it because she is trying to hide from the camera as usual!! :)

Grandpa got some of the families together by their tree for a picture. Dave and Ruth's family didn't get together for a picture until late in the afternoon, when my camera was gone, so I missed getting a picture of their family. Too bad! Below is Jonathan's brother Robert with his wife Julie, and their two girls, Danielle and Cassady.

Here is Jonathan's sister Esther, with her husband, Jon, and their children, Stacy, Vanessa, Rebekah, and Ryan.

Let's see. Which brother and family is this?