Merry Christmas!

As you can tell, Santa was very good to us this year. Naia was absolutely dwarfed by the pile of presents around her Christmas tree. Dick and I exchanged presents before we headed over to see the grandkids. I got him a GPS for the car and a router thingee (technical woodworking terminology for 'I don't have a clue what this is but he really wants it'). He made me this gorgeous box - curly maple and ebony for the lid; black walnut and sateen for the sides - that just happened to hid a pair of diamond stud earrings and a display rack for my scarves and shawls. I'd apparently complained awhile ago about not being able to see/display all my FO's; Dick thought about it and came up with this. He took a floor lamp we were no longer using, turned the shade around, put a purpleheart finial on top, and added 10 rotating 'arms'. He covered this with a sheet, pinned a ribbon to it, and has had it sitting by the tree for almost a week, taunting me to figure it out. Needless to say, I couldn't. Now I can hang my woven and crocheted items and admire see them all at once. Love.This.

Leia had no clue what was going on this morning, but loved watching all the activity around her. Miles was at this dad's for the week, so Naia was the center of gift-opening-attention. Almost all the photos I have of her are blurred from her being in constant motion. Needless to say, she had a great time. Since Dick is still germy, he delegated his traditional turkey-carving duties to Gary for the first time. Gary was a bit intimidated - probably because we were all standing around, cameras in hand, in case he messed up - but did an excellent job on the bird.

Gary also held Leia without protest. I call this the 'Addy Effect'; he was scared to death to hold Addison when she was little but now he knows kids don't break very easily (and aren't contagious) and is more comfortable. Yeah, Addison!

Leia, 4-months

Marie and Dad

One of Gary's presents was a remote controlled helicopter. We bought it as almost a gag gift, a stocking stuffer. It turned out to be great fun for both Gary, who played around trying to figure it all out for over an hour, and the cats. Ored and AJ were fascinated by the buzzing, spinning, flashing interloper until it dive-bombed AJ (accidentally, Gary swears). After that, they watched from under a chair.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holly Days to All!