Our second wave of Christmas guests came in after Christmas to celebrate with us.
Our son Micah and his family spent a couple of days here. Sooo glad they could come!
It was great seeing our 14-year-old grandson, whose birthday we celebrated during their visit. Grampa played guitar and led in singing Happy Birthday:
The newlyweds, Christopher and Hannah, were also back home at the same time! It was great having their visits overlap! They especially enjoyed Virginia temps in the 60's on their walks around the property!
We got the distinct impression that they are enjoying married life!
One of the highlights of the visit was a special meal prepared for us by our daughter-in-law while they were here...excellent beef tenderloin with Apple and Cheddar Crisp Kale Salad, which was absolutely delicious! She also baked the birthday cake we all enjoyed! Thank you, thank you, Kerri!
Jonathan invited everyone over to his house for a meal again! He is becoming quite the exotic chef! And this time he served...Christmas goose!
On the menu: Roasted Goose with Five Spice and Honey, Pink Peppercorn Lemon Thyme Spiced Potatoes, Spiced Pears, Tossed Green Salad, and Chocolate Coffee Babka Wreath.
Hannah helped with the potatoes, which were cooked with some of the goose fat instead of olive oil:
Waiting for the meal to be ready...I am in the far background...just relaxing and enjoying all this special treatment of other folks fixing three of the meals for me! Amazing!
Exploring Uncle Jonathan's property before time to eat:
After the successful meal...we played Five Crowns card game and took photos again for Jonathan's guest book, although the younger ones needed to get back early for bedtime and missed the guest book photo:
All too soon it was time to take the traditional grandparents-and-grandchildren-on-the-sofa photo before Micah and family left headed back to their home! These times don't come often...so we enjoy them when we can:
Then we got down to the business of celebrating Tom's birthday. We were thankful for the warmer weather since his birthday meal request is usually Grilled Pizzas with Diavolo sauce. (To simplify, we use Greek pitas for the personal size pizzas which are sturdy and hold up great on the grill.)
The next day everyone wanted to do an outside activity before the rain began, so these four hiked the Blue Ridge Tunnel and sang the Doxology in the darkness before finishing up the hike.
I stayed home--using the much needed extra time with no one in the house--to finish working on the quilt label and sewing it on before I gifted it later on New Year's Eve. Whew! Washed and dried and finished in the nick of time!
New Year's Eve I received more help in the kitchen for chopping Sunday's veggies. I am grateful for everyone pitching in! I thoroughly enjoyed our Christmas visitors....we just missed those munchkins in Georgia being here this year!
This post almost wraps up this blog series of our Christmas guests and the fun times we had together.
I do have a few more photos to post about the two quilts I made for gifts....stay tuned for a final Christmas Memories Part 4 ~ the Quilts!
~Deb
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