Christmas 2013

We generally went over to Mark's sister Judy's and Oren's for Christmas, but this year was much different.  Oren died and Judy has been staying with Christine and her girls.  Then a few months back she bought a bigger house for them all to move into, but Judy and Christine and her kids weren't QUITE settled in yet.  The house has been being renovated and they just began moving in last weekend.  But they still hadn't gotten quite everything out of the old place!  So Mark's nephew John and his wife Claire were the ones who did Christmas dinner this year.  They live over in Church Point so it was an hour and half drive, but it was a lovely day so the drive was no problem at all.  And although we generally saw them every year at Judy's place, this was the first time we had ever been to THEIR house.  Fun!

 

Mark and I, Vickie and John, and Judy

 

John, Claire and Judy

 

Christine and Patrick

Mark and me

Vickie and John

 

 

We also spent an evening with Jan and Mike before they headed out to visit Jan's parents and then their daughter up in Tennessee. 

Mike and Jan

And I loved visiting with their baby mastiff, Gus, too!  He is SUCH a sweet boy.

Mike and "Gus"

Gus

Mark and John

Now I'm going to stay home for another week and just relax!  (No pay, but hey . . . so what.)  Going back to work on January 2.   And NEXT year I get an additional week's vacation since I've now been there for more than 15 years!  Oh -- and at the firm Christmas party last Friday, I got a 15 year reward AND a really lovely Christmas centerpiece --

 

 

And it smells absolutely wonderful, too!

 

Life is good.