"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas,
but if the white runs out I'll drink the red."
"Merry Everything and Happy Always."
When I created my Updated Bucket List for Year 77 I included an item for Bonnie and I to host a family gathering on Christmas Day. This is not really an unusual activity, but as the family members have gotten older, and the grand-kids have gone away to school or work, gotten married, etc. it has become increasingly difficult to get the whole family together (even though we only have 13 in our family). My grandma Hadfield was famous for always saying, "keep the family together" and this is just one effort toward that objective.
Decorating the Christmas Tree - Griffin helped Bonnie decorate the Christmas Tree last year and enjoyed it so much he made a special request to come help again this year. He did a really good job.
Visiting Christian - Bonnie and I have made a habit of taking a poinsettia to our grandson Christian's burial site each year at Christmas.
Christmas Eve - As can be seen below, I was able to remove all the snow from our driveway so Santa could make it to our house. Tracy and Adriane joined Bonnie and I for a Christmas Eve visit, glass of wine, and dinner at Wang's Restaurant.
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After dinner Tracy suggested we play a game called Bean Boozled. After she explained the game she lost Bonnie and I, but Adriane agreed to try it. The game involves flipping the arrow on a spinner wheel, and then eating a jelly bean matching the color where the arrow stops. There are 10 colors, but each color has two "flavors" - one is good, the other is disgusting. A few examples of the two flavors for a given color: Red could be Strawberry Banana Smoothie or Dead Fish; Green could be Lime or Lawn Clippings; Peach could be Peach or Barf; White could be Coconut or Spoiled Milk; Yellow could be Buttered Popcorn or Rotten Egg; etc. etc. You get the idea.
So the photos below show how it went - First, Tracy is doing the spinner. Next she selects one of the jelly beans and got the "bad" flavor, and Adriane is loving it! Then Adriane takes a turn and her jelly bean comes out in the napkin. Finally, they both eat a jelly bean at the same time and sure enough, they both come back out in the napkins. I wondered as this was going on whether the other kids would play the next day - on Christmas morning.
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Christmas Day - We have tried over the years to have the full family together on Christmas Day. Of course this was easy when the girls were small; Santa Claus came to the house, we all got up together, built a fire in the fireplace, listened to Christmas music, and opened all the presents. Later, when the girls were older, but still living at home, we spent the Christmas Holidays at the Cabin in Big Bear. The Olsen family was always with us and for many years from the late 1970s into the 1980s we were always in Big Bear for Christmas. Things have become a little more complicated as the girls have grown, married, have families of their own, etc. This year, and for the last several years, the family came to our house for a Christmas Brunch. Each of the girls brought some food and we had a delicious meal and a great visit. In addition to Bonnie & I, Jenny and her family included Bekah & Rob and Matthew (Mike had to work); Tracy was here, but didn't bring Dottie and Frankie; Heather and her family included Sean, Meghan, Curran and Griffin. So there were twelve of us and it was a lot of fun.
The photos below are in the kitchen where we were scrambling eggs, warming potatoes O'Brien and sausage, organizing side dishes and visiting.
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We ate in the dinning room, except for Rob & Bekah who arrived a few minutes after we began and ate at the counter in the kitchen.
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Then came the opening of presents. The $20 bill that Bonnie is holding in the last photo has a long history with us. Bonnie received it as part of her change when purchasing gifts during the 1997 holiday season. Someone had written on the bill, "Merry Christmas Nick - 1997." I was surprised to receive it as a gift from Bonnie the following year with the inscription on the bill, Merry Xmas Ron - 1998." We've given it to each other ever since - this year it was my turn to give it to her.
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Bonnie and I got nice gifts from the girls. The first photo is the "Gardener's Christmas Bulb Garden basket, an indoor plant they gave to Bonnie. It includes Red Dynamite amaryllis, red Seadov tulips, and mini star of Bethlehem. The second photo is what the basket will look like in a month or so. Photos in the second row show the gifts they gave to me. The first photo shows two bottles of Raymond Napa Valley Chardonnay, one of my very favorite wines. The second photo shows two stemless personalized wine glasses. I have always wanted stemless wine glasses, since they're more stable - not as easy to tip over. But the neat thing is the engraving. I have always poured a generous glass of wine which I have referred to as a Hadfield Pour. These glasses have been engraved with -Short Pour-, -Long Pour-, and appropriately near the top, -Hadfield Pour-. I love them!
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In 1982 we asked a local artist named Lee Jackson if she would draw our three daughters in chalk. We have had these drawings in our homes ever since then and really love them. Today I thought it would be fun to have the girls pose next to the drawings, 35 years later. The fun photo below is the result.
Ever since January 2004 we have been measuring the height of the grand-kids and keeping track of their growth on a cabinet wall in the garage. We measured Griffin today, and you can see all the prior year marks written on masking tape. The ink is fading and the tape is curling, but it's fun to study it once in a while.
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Everyone in the family has a mark or two on the cabinet. Just for fun I'm showing the change in the grand-kids below:
Bekah ----- 4' 8 3/4" January 25, 2004; 5' 6 3/8" December 25, 2017
Matthew -- 3' 6 1/4" January 25, 2004; 5' 9 3/8" December 25, 2016 (no measure today)
Meghan --- 4' 8 1/8" January 25, 2004; 5' 4 1/4" December 25, 2012 (and ever since)
Curran ---- 3' 9 3/4" January 25, 2004; 6' 3/4" December 25, 2017
Griffin ---- 3' 1 3/4" April 19, 2009; 4' 10 5/8" December 25, 2017
Rob ------- 6' 3/4" December 25, 2016; 6' 3/4" December 25, 2017
No one is going to pass Curran and Rob
As the activity was winding down, Griffin decided we should play Bean Boozled. Since I covered this game in detail earlier in this blog I won't go into a lot of detail here. There were only a few that would play - Griffin, Tracy, Rob and Bekah - and I began wondering if any of the jelly beans really have the "good" flavor. Everything I heard from them was "Stinky Socks", "Spoiled Milk", "Canned Dog Food", "Booger", and so forth. Not a very appetizing game. In the first photo below Griffin is recruiting people to play Bean Boozled. In the second photo I'm showing off my Santa Hat.
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I HOPE EVERYONE HAD A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS !!