Jonathan has spent extra time at his parents' home in the last few months as he has supervised repairing roof and siding damages after last summer's hailstorm. His parents also decided to have this lovely stone facade installed along the front of their home.
Jonathan took this picture of them several Sundays ago in the middle of December when our family was at Sunday dinner there with Rob's and Esther's families.
Jonathan took this picture of them several Sundays ago in the middle of December when our family was at Sunday dinner there with Rob's and Esther's families.
Jonathan's mother decorates so tastefully with pretty pillows and this pretty pencil Christmas tree complete with wooden ornaments handpainted by Jonathan's sister Barbara.
They have various moose ornaments and decorations from Alaska where they have gone different times and where Jonathan's sister Barbara lived several years.
A beautiful yellow orchid with "O Holy Night" in the background.
I enjoy Jonathan's mother's home. It is always cozy and peaceful and tastefully decorated, with just the right amount of decorations for Christmas! They did a super job of downsizing four years ago when they moved to this new place. They got rid of a lot of stuff, but kept enough to make their new home cozy.
Getting together with Jonathan's brother's family was somewhat spur-of-the-moment this time, but I enjoyed the spontaneity. At the last minute, our nephew Bryan was able to come as well as Emily, arriving late Sunday night, while Dave and Ruth arrived in time for Sunday dinner. After a quick time of stopping in and singing for our dear friend Bro. Gafford who is bedfast, we had Sunday dinner together with Jonathan's parents and Dave and Ruth, then made plans for Monday night as well.
Ruth and Dave wanted to go out to eat with us so we could have some one-on-one time together for the purpose of building relationship.
We did that, bringing in pizza for the grands and the cousins who got together to play games Monday night while we parents went out for a couple hours. They had a lot of fun!
Here Ruth is icing the doughnuts Grandma made Tuesday night.
Ruth has been a wonderful and understanding friend to me, and I appreciate her so much--her spontaneity, laughter, understanding, and her desire to not just maintain but build good relationships. I appreciate so much how she and I can talk at a heart level and not just on the surface.
Grandpa and ma invited everyone back for Tuesday evening, so we decided that Monday night had been such fun, we'd go for another game night--especially if Jonathan's mom would make whirly donuts--one of her specialties that Jonathan drools over!
Grandma Lucas frying doughnuts for Tuesday night while Carrie stirs chicken soup simmering on the stove.
With a little help from Carrie making the white sauce, I made this potato/carrot/ham/cheese chowder to go along with the doughnuts. Grandma used to make such a delicious sausage stew along with donuts, and I wanted to help her out, but how to make a stew quite as good as Grandma's?. Carrie just wanted to make a brothy vegetable chicken soup for the frigid evening, and I told her she could make her choice of soup, but I wanted to make one crockpot the way the Lucases like it.
Every last bit of that chowder got eaten up, so I guess it was okay!
Carrie's chicken soup was delicious, too! So good and hot on that frigid night!
On the way there, Jonathan was starving and said he could eat SIX donuts!
I said that he had to eat his vegetables first!
Soooo--you can see the broccoli placed dutifully on top of the donut!
After supper, the youngsters played at the dining room table and some of the rest of us gathered around this folding table to play Bible Apples to Apples. Rob and Julie helped Cassie play across from me, and Dave and Ruth and Jonathan's dad played, too.
We had a gale of fun!
I love how Ruth is so fun, and we appreciated so much how their kids played games with ours.
Dutch Blitz at the youngsters' table--arms criss-crossing and hands slapping cards down. You need a video to watch the action on this one!
Clapping when the game was done.
I don't want to bug people taking too many pictures, but these I took to share on my blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment