Comfort and Joy

We spent Christmas Eve having lunch with Heath and Jenn, Sean and Lisha, and, of course, Caleb. After eating and exchanging gifts, it was time for David and I to take off for the airport. We stopped off briefly at Sherry and Tom's where their annual Christmas Eve party was just getting under way. We took a few quick pictures by the tree with Caleb and then we were on our way again.

We got into Orlando around 10PM, grabbed a rental car and headed for Amy and John's. They knew we were coming but the kids didn't, so we stuck in and went straight to bed. The next morning we surprised Leah, Jack and Will and the day was under way.






















































Lots of nice gifts, good food -- all prepared by Amy -- and a wonderful, comfortable holiday spent with family and friends! True joy!

Christmas musings...

This is the Christmas card my paternal grandparents sent out in 1923. As I studied the picture, one word came to my mind - simple. The decorations are simple and lovely. The sentiment expressed is simple and heartfelt.

Perhaps simplicity is the key. Christmas is a time to remind ourselves of our blessings and the most important ones are simple and basic. Love of family and friends, freedom and the glorious, beautiful world we live in. Sure, life is full of many difficulties. But maybe, just maybe, it would all make more sense if we remembered to concentrate on the simple things. God's son wasn't born in a fancy palace. God's greatest gift to the world came to us in a simple manger. Surely this is part of God's message to us. The true beauty and fulfillment in life is found in the simple things, enjoyed in simple ways. The simple, basic values in life endure forever.

I wish for you a Christmas filled with smiles, laughter and hugs and a New Year of peace, health and hope.

Simplicity.

Simple.

Baby, it's cold outside!

The temperature when I got up this morning was 11 degrees -- which is actually warmer than one day last week when it was 3! Ahhh! Winter in the Hamptons -- what's not to love?

So this is Christmas...

"...help us to remember the birth of Jesus, that we may share in the song of the angels, the gladness of the shepherds, and the worship of the wise men." -- Robert Louis Stevenson

No matter what else I do (or mostly don't) get done at Christmas time, I always make sure the Nativity is put out. David's father, Pop-Pop, gave us this nativity the first Christmas after Amy was born. He gathered the pieces for it from ones he and David's mom, Gobby, had gotten over the years. They are just inexpensive plastic figures and a cardboard creche, but they are precious to me. Pop-pop knew better than anyone the true meaning of Christmas and the gift God gave to us all and he wanted to make sure that his children and grandchildren understood it also. Over the years the children have been able to play with the figures, re-arranging the wise men and the shepherds over and over, and I hope they remember this set fondly. The first person up on Christmas morning would put Baby Jesus in his bed and then Christmas could begin. (I put the baby in the bed for the picture, but the cradle is empty again until Christmas Day.)

All kids love Santa...

...Or NOT!

Present or no, Will is outta there!

* Thanks to Amy at planetmancuso for the pictures.

Day 4...

A full tummy!











Life is good!









Heath wanted to get a few pictures for a Christmas card, so we spent a little time together yesterday afternoon. Caleb grows cuter each day. He is eating well, sleeps quite a bit and really only cries when he needs something. So far, so good!

Christmas lights...

This year, for the first time, David decided to do a little decorating outside. I mentioned that I had always thought a big star on top of the barn would be cool. Now that was a bit intimidating, but David thought he might like to hang a big wreath on the barn. It only took 2 weekends to accomplish, but the end result is a really beautiful Christmas decoration! This morning he said he thought maybe some of those up and down things (icicle lights to the rest of us!) would look real nice all along the barn roof line! Hang on to your hats, we may have created another Tim the tool man!

Edited:I took some new pictures of the wreath after someone asked me if I had a tripod. I do have one, but didn't think to use it! Duh! Slow shutter you need a tripod. So anyway, the second batch of pictures is a bit better...

A day in the life of a little dumpling

"There is nothing as ancient as infancy. Unchanging ancientness is born into homes again and again in the form of a baby, yet the freshness, beauty, innocence and sweetness it had at the beginning of history is the same today." - Rabindranath Tagore


























I spent some time at the hospital yesterday with Sherry and Jenn's mom, Janice, getting to know the youngest member of the family. Jenn is doing much, much better and is walking around with the best of them. Caleb was a tad cranky due to the "little snip", but he was still cute! Janice and I made some ink prints of Caleb's feet on Heath and Jenn's Lamaze training certificate which didn't make him too happy. They spent quite a bit of time filling out the stack of paper work for Caleb's birth certificate. Back in the olden days the nurse brought in one sheet of paper. "Mom? Dad? Good. Sign here."
Today is the big day -- Caleb's homecoming! Heath and Jenn are very excited and can't wait to get him home. May God bless your new little family!

How I spent my Thursday...

In my opinion, St. Charles Hospital is waaaay too stingy with their visiting hours! 2 - 4 PM for the grandparents -- when the babies are in the mom's room and you can hold them and take pictures, etc.-- and 7 - 8 PM when the babies are behind the glass and No PHOTOS ALLOWED! Nevertheless, intrepid granny that I am, I was able to snap 85 pictures of our newest little dumpling. Here are a few. Never could get any with his eyes open -- maybe today! Any opinions on who the baby looks like??

































I know. I know. Enough already. Sorry.

Christmas Cookies 26 years ago...

"Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn't come from a store".
- Theodor Geisel

Amy's post over at planetmancuso about the Christmas Mess - a- thon sparked the remembrance of these pictures taken in 1979 -- Amy and Sean trying diligently to turn out the perfect Christmas cookies and Heath, well, he was contributing in a way only a 2 year old can! A Christmas tradition in the making. How cool!

The reward at the end of a long day...

"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; The soul that rises with us, our life's star, Hath had elsewhere its setting, And cometh from afar; Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come from God, who is our home". --William Wordsworth

It's 1:15AM and David and I just arrived home from the hospital. Caleb Joseph Terry arrived safe and sound at 9:31PM (or maybe 9:21PM -- Heath can't remember!) a pink and healthy 8 pounds 5 ounces! After a little time in recovery, Jenn is feeling much better and was all smiles when we were able to visit with her briefly before heading home. She has been a real trooper throughout this whole pregnancy and we couldn't be more proud! The pictures are not so great as I was taking them through glass and plastic. I promise better ones tomorrow after "Grandparents Visiting Hours"!

All is white with the world...

Our Tuesday morning view.

"The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?" - J. B. Priestley