Our family was four short this Christmas. Sarah and Adam were in California, our neice, Grace, is traveling through Europe after a semester studying in Florence, and Toby was ill. We missed all of them, but had the added pleasure this year of having Greg's friend, Sonora, and Jasmine's friend, Hollis, with us.
Thanks to some great information from an online course I took this month, I got out my Speedlite and did some practice shots before Christmas night. Our house is incredibly dark, even in the daytime, and I'm never happy with overly bright shots with on-camera flash. Without flash, the photos are too grainy. The Speedlite was great. The flash bounces off the ceiling so no one is getting the bright flash in their eyes (and people are less apt to recognize their photos are being taken), and the color was quite good. So here's a look in photos of our Christmas.
Our living room before it all began. Tracy, Matt, and I didn't get home from church until well after midnight, so we had a late start. Even though there were just three of us in the morning, we took our time and enjoyed watching each other open gifts. My big surprise was receiving the DVD set for the complete West Wing series. It was my favorite show and went on for seven seasons. It will take me the better part of the year to get through them. I've seen the first eight episodes this week as I worked on my Christmas Journal and other projects. I'm enjoying them as much the second time as I did the first. I've never been a big fan of DVDs, but I was delighted to get these.
At four o'clock the family arrived. Even with the absences we were 18 strong. I get a lot of help with the dinner preparations as everyone contributes their specialty. The menu varies very little from year to year.
We always have just a few more than we can seat in the dining room. Tracy was busy helping Randy pass the heavy (and hot) dishes before they sat down to eat.
For years we've opened gifts in the same order: youngest first, and everyone watches and admires the gifts. The older adults exchange names and the younger adults exchange names as well. Now that we're all adults there's some confusion at times at who is next to open gifts! This year we ranged in age from 17 to 89!
For the last several years, a highlight of Christmas has been the Walker family band. This year Hollis joined with his flute, and Sonora joined in with the drums. Off and on through the evening, different groups of people would sit down with instruments and start to play. It's a talented family!
At one point it was just drums, and wonderful! The drum on the left is Matt's. Sarah brought it back to him when she came home from a summer in New Mexico. We all agreed it has the best sound.
One of Tracy's brothers lives in Phoenix. He has three beautiful daughters and several grandchildren. This year we got to visit with them and share our celebrations through the wonders of Skype.
I don't imagine it's very likely that the WHOLE family will ever manage to be present at Christmas. We are scattered across the country (and this year, in Europe, as well), but we take joy in the times we are together and certainly are grateful for the many ways technology lets us share with one another.
