Christmas 2010

Christmas is a wonder-filled time of the year.  I was blessed to spend mine with my sister Pat and her husband Bob and their family.  The oldest of their grandchildren is seven, and five of them live nearby, so we had a rollicking good time.  Making time for both sides of two different families meant that we celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve, but we made it an all-day celebration, starting with a hearty breakfast and going through to a turkey dinner in the evening.  In between all the eating there were presents to be opened, new toys to be enjoyed, and lots of fun just being together. 

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the weekend.  Emily had a brand new chair that had her name embroidered on it, and she took possession of it immediately.

Jake got a stuffed blue dog (I think its name is Blue), a character in a cartoon he likes.  He was obviously pleased.

Ava and Elizabeth are the proud owners of American Girl dolls, and they were so excited they could hardly speak!

Abby is a bit young for all the excitement.  Just wait until next year!

For more pictures of this crew and their Christmas, you can check out the Picasa album at http://picasaweb.google.com/ejoyce2/Christmas2010#

Threat of a major snowstorm chased me home on Christmas Day in the afternoon, but we had minimal snow here.  Places north of us got slammed.  A friend in NYC reports 20 inches of white stuff.  They may have it with my blessings.

Christmas and the children's program

On Sunday Calvary United Methodist Church in Annapolis had as a part of its service a Christmas play put on by the children from the Sunday School classes for grades one through six.  Titled "The Grumpy Shepherd", it was very cute, and some of those children have excellent speaking and singing voices for their ages.

Some of the younger children sitting in the audience were heard to complain, "I can't SEE!", and the next thing I knew there were two really cute youngsters sitting quietly in the aisle.

They were quickly joined by six or eight others, and there they remained until they were dismissed for Sunday School at the end of the play.  

The church was richly decorated for Christmas with lots and lots of poinsettias. 



Discovering that I had my pocket camera in my purse was a nice surprise.  Had I realized it earlier, I would have finagled a seat closer to the action!