Holiday Pictures

Surprise!

Our holidays where looking like they were going to be rather ordinary days. Sometimes we do that - simply work through holidays, since we don't have any family gatherings to attend and since our work is always backed up. I was tentatively planning to clean the refrigerator and do some laundry today... until Daniel surprised us by traveling nine hours to drop in for a visit! 

Mexican Train Dominoes

Since Daniel was in the house, we declared the day a holiday and and pulled out a variety of table games.  Dad as usual won most of them. :) 

Head Cook and Head Dishwasher

Joy, with a little help from the rest of us, fixed a special meal.

Head Turkey Carver

Even David helped out in the kitchen!

Let the meal begin!

We all enjoyed Joy's cooking and a good long time to talk (and of course being Gardners we had to share a few lame jokes!).

Finishing up Dishes

Following the meal, we all helped with the dishes and cleanup. Well, most of us helped...Daniel randomly gave hugs and succeeded in getting in the way. :)

Bitsy and a Bone

Even Bitsy helped clean up some leftovers. :)

Mom and her notebook

Our gifts this year were notebooks and pens, each one carefully chosen to fit the receiver's personality and needs. 

















Dad's notebook has Snoopy on it, because he often gets a chuckle out of the Peanuts comic strip.

Along with a doggie themed notebook, I received  a special card from my only "niece", who is Joy's cat, Sundae. The card reads as follows: "Mewy Christmus fwum sooper sekret admywer.    - santas littel helpurr"

Joy's notebook was kitty themed and considering that quite a few of her birthday cards this year were decorated with cats, I wonder if kitties are pushing cows out of her life and mind???  :)

Instead of a notebook, Daniel was given an agenda. He immediately started planning his nap times for next year...

David's notebook was definitely the uniquest one of all. On it's cover it says "I Learn by Osmosis". In between the words, you will notice there is a Garfield that has books tied to his head, arms, feet, etc...

No holiday is complete without special desserts. Our day has been full of a very special Stollen, which is similar to a fruit cake. Sabrina (Daniel's bride-to-be) made the Stollen and Daniel brought it with him. We also had to suffer through some brown sugar spice cake which we made.

This evening we gathered around the piano and sang a few hymns, before Daniel hurried off to catch a bus back to São José dos Campos and the rest of us prepared to crawl into bed.