Merry Christmas to All

Our Christmas, 2012, in photos:

Rose #3, as a surprise Little Shepherd in the Christmas Pageant at Church:

With her group of other little shepherds:

(I watched the 5:30 pageant service and there was a problem when Rose #3 lost her headdress.  Luckily it happened before she got onstage; once the group of big and little shepherds are standing there, they are supposed to form a mostly motionless and silent tableau.  She nevertheless felt the need to process the loss of the headdress with the other shepherds, most notably the biggest senior shepherd, Kip.)

And here is a shot of the members of our family who attended the 4:00 service (Rose #1 and #2 were in the children's choir...you can see their vivid red choir robes):

After the pageant is over we always come home and track Santa's progress on the computer:

Here are all three girls huddled by the computer, watching where Santa was headed next:

And Christmas 2012, in food (Christmas Eve tortellini sausage soup YUM!):

Rose #3 loving her dad on Christmas Eve:

I didn't eat any of it, but I cooked a Standing Rib Roast for the group on Christmas night...as I was texting with my brother about cooking questions I abbreviated the dish to "SRR":

And, The Best Yorkshire Pudding Ever:

Duncan came to dinner.  I LOVE Duncan:

I think this sums it up.  We had a wonderful Christmas.  We feel so blessed by our fortune and our family.  We spent a lot of time talking about Mom tonight and for the first time since she died - 2.5 years later - it felt joyous and wonderful and not desperate and sad.

Good night Rose #3, and good night all!

Nothing Whatsoever To Do With Christmas

We were downloading photos from my camera, and we found this one from the inaugural meeting of the Beauty Club.  Isn't this a lovely group of beauties?