Christmas

I hope your Christmas was wonderful.  Ours was lovely, quite civilized now that our kids are older (21 and 16).  This year, for the first time, we were up before them!  I never take many photos at Christmas because they never seem to come out how I want them to, but here are a few from our day which began with freshly squeezed orange juice from oranges we went outside to pick, grapefruit (also from the garden) and delicious, warm, homemade gluten free cinnamon bread.  We had coffee and tea in my new handmade bird cups.

Remember this hoop?  I made it a few weeks ago for a friend who started keeping bees this year.  Guess what...on Christmas Eve she stopped by with a beautiful jar of her precious honey.  This is truly a precious gift and much appreciated because earlier, in the Fall, she was telling me she wasn't sure she'd have enough honey to harvest this season.  I love that she tied the jar with some of her hand screen printed fabric and that cute little wooden spoon.  Oh, and I tasted the honey, it's wonderful. 

We picked out a new squeaky toy for Tia.  She loves things that squeak but she is rough on toys and they have to be pretty tough.  This one fits the bill.  She loved it from the moment my daughter ripped open the wrapping and she immediately carried it off.  She plays with it, she carries it around, she sleeps with it.  Sometimes we are allowed to pick it up!  

When I was in England this summer I wrote about my sister in law who does silk painting.  You can find that post here.  This gorgeous cushion arrived in the mail a little while before Christmas and was hidden away till the big day.  It is now on one of my sofas now, across from me so I can look at it and smile.  It is so perfectly Tia.  

This was a year for thoughtful gifts.  

There were technical electronic things (our son is doing a degree in Sound Design),  art supplies and clothes and a giant jar of Nutella (our daughter),  cookbooks, a novel, homemade cards and cozy slippers which the dog better not carry off (me) and a book on using chainsaws, plaid shirts and gluten free beer (my husband).  There was too much good food, energetic and competitive games of Boggle and bracing walks with Tia.  It's been a really crazy and very stressful few weeks.  It feels good to unwind a bit.