we are nine days into the new year, happy new year friends! it's been a wonderful holiday season for us and i hope it was for you too. that your celebrations included friends, family and all things that warm your heart and share the joy. we had four of our five children here with us as ben and kensey, now living in prague, stayed overseas and celebrated the holiday season together exploring italy and all of its christmas delights. we missed them, but facetiming christmas morning for hours was nearly as good....umm....yea....nearly.
sebastian arrived home first, then margo, andrew and nigel and finally nicole and her boyfriend brandon. let the good times begin!!
the first day after the last day of finals, gabi started the holiday season off hosting a besties christmas brunch, a "crunch", with her friends from school. sebastian and ben's friends, home for the holidays, also came by to enjoy a happy reunion. i have to give a shout out to josh who has joined the cast of the national tour of hamilton performing since march in san francisco, los angeles and soon coming to denver!! we are so so proud of you josh and what you have done with your extraordinary talent. we can't wait to see you on stage, doing your thing in your own hometown! whoop, whoop!
christmas eve arrived and all the tradition with it. since it was sunday, we all went to church together with the added bonus of getting to hear gabi's sweet performance singing oh holy night for the congregation. it was oh so beautiful. that evening, my sister alisa, dressed as my twin by happenstance, arrived with her family and paul served a bounteous and delicious christmas eve dinner with all the trimmings and then some. nicole and margo took over the dessert making this year with a festively colorful cranberry chestnut cake. christmas cracker opening before dinner, christmas toasts throughout, red-bowed pups, laughter, games and carol singing rounded off our christmas eve family traditions. bonus!! it snowed a few days before and the temperatures stayed cold so we enjoyed a white christmas!
christmas day arrived with a flurry of snow, paper, ribbons and bows, surprises, happy tears of gratefulness, rugby shirts, christmas stockings, ben and kensey laughter as they watched from the phone, a break for christmas morning casserole then back to the tree for more of the same. happy, happy, joy, joy to share it altogether. we ended the day with another gastronomical treat of paul's, mussels and fresh baguettes. oh my, my man, you are amazing.
the remainder of the holiday went by in a collection of easy going, fun filled, unscheduled, unrestricted days and nights. we lazily and happily: hot tubbed, worked on and eventually completed a 1,000 piece london's underground puzzle, ate leftovers, celebrated paul's and my 35th wedding anniversary (what the? 35 years, are you sure?) went to a nuggets game then little man ice cream, visited the denver art museum, ate leftovers, went on very icy hikes, played game of phones, spent an afternoon at ncar, went to the movies, margo, sab and friends practiced a hymn and performed at church on new years eve, were the location for a film gabi starred in for a friend's film class project, ate leftovers and finally broke some sweat chainsawing, trimming and piling the remains of our fallen grand twin pine tree. talk about manly men paul, sab and andrew. wowza!
welp, that about sums it up. another holiday season behind us satisfying the need for family, tradition, togetherness, appreciation, celebration and gratefulness for all the good we have been shown, all the good we have been given, all the good we can create, all the good we can find and all the good we can share each day of each year of our good life. welcome 2018.
we added a very special event this christmas eve as we unveiled our recently completed commissioned family painting by the extraordinarily talented artist and dear friend, elspeth young. paul had a deep desire to dedicate his appreciation and respect for this country and the opportunities it has granted him by portraying our family as immigrants to the u.s. which of course it is on both sides through different eras, as all american families are. as a young seventeen year old south african with no ties and no connections, paul made his way to the u.s. with only a pocketful of hopes and dreams for the future with which this exceptional country of ours grants him the opportunity to make come true and which in turn enables him to give back. win, win.
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