Jim's mom and dad (ages 95 and 93) successfully drove from their home in Milwaukee to visit us and be part of our celebration here in Cedar Rapids. The weather was touch and go, so we were thankful they made it here and back safely. It was a special time for them as they were able to meet their tenth great-grandchild, Claire Grace Schumacher. Little Silas, Claire's 2 1/2 year old cousin was just as taken with her as they were. I guess babies delight all of us, young and old.
Though they live only a half hour away in Iowa City, Justin and Annie opted to stay three nights in our home with little Claire, rather than haul oxygen tanks back and forth. It is always delightful to have an infant in our home - we all enjoyed cuddling her and admiring all of her little antics.
How we celebrataed: I prepared our traditional Swedish smorgasbord for our Christmas Eve dinner which includes Swedish fruit soup, Swedish meatballs, sour-cream mashed potatoes, festive cauliflower, green "star" jello, home-made crescent rolls, and a chocolate/peppermint ice cream dessert. The dessert was a new version this year with peppermint ice cream sandwiches as a base rather than the Oreo cookie crust I used to make. It was a hit, so that will be included as our dessert in years to come. (Jason and Roxanne - we hope you like it as much as we did!!) After dinner we opened gifts and enjoyed seeing everyone's creativity with the ornament exchange that has become part of our tradition in the last few years. We draw names for a gift and ornament, and everyone takes pride in choosing an ornament that would be significant for their person during the preceding year. Jorie gave me a beautiful cloisonne' golden apple to signify my retirement from teaching; and Jim received a darling wheelbarrow loaded with a little bush and garden tools to represent the many hours he spends working in our yard each year.
On Christmas morning we began with an hour long skype call toJason, Roxanne, and Annikah in Tanzania. It was wonderful to be able to watch each other open the gifts we had sent and received in the mail. It was the next best thing to actually being together for Christmas. After the call we enjoyed our traditional Christmas champagne brunch and just relaxed the rest of the day.
One disappointment was that Jorie, Mark, Joel, and Silas could not enjoy the activities with us as a family. Joel had been running a fever and was suffering from a virus, and since the doctor had warned Annie and Justin that Claire should not be around any illness, Jorie and Mark opted to come over to our house in alternate shifts, leaving the boys at home. By New Year's Day, though, everyone was well, so Jim and I along with Justin, Annie, and Claire all gathered at Jorie and Mark's house for New Year's Day brunch.
Here are a few more pictures I took that show more of our Christmas.
2 comments:
you were the best hostess, as always. can't wait til our next visit to cedar!
oh, makes us miss everyone so much! It was awesome to get to talk & see to you all, thought about everyone a ton. Anni kept saying "Grandma on that" when she saw teh computer :) already wore my new skirt 3 times- I love it!! Asants sana!
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