One down, one to go, and one on the way

You know it's Christmas when the blingy reindeer appears

I didn't want Christmas week to slip away without telling you about our first family Christmas.

Of two.

That being, last Friday night when we all gathered -- fourteen of us, total -- and celebrated both Christmas and our Melly's sixteenth birthday.

Melly reacts with wonder to her marvelous birthday cake

But I see that I have allowed Christmas week to melt away and now it's Christmas Eve and you'll all be busy with your families and aren't likely to see this until after actual Christmas has come and gone.

As my mother used to say: That's all right.

A promise is a promise, and I do remember saying that I would memorialize this event for you.

All the festivities that we could bear

So let's get started.

Everyone began arriving on Friday in the mid afternoon -- oh wait. Andrew and Brittany and Ember got in on Thursday night, and dropped by for an hour or so, before going to stay with Chad and Erica.

I had no room in the inn because Stephanie and her family would. be occupying our two guest rooms.

We had a full house

Andrew had promised to do some work on Audrey's car, to save her some money, and he would be getting up with the birds on Friday to accomplish that task.

On Friday I began cooking our Christmas dinner, which consisted of turkey breast, ham, sweet potato casserole, corn casserole, green bean casserole, pretzel salad, mashed potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce, mince pie, and pumpkin pie.

Also there was a pistachio cake made by our Brittany, and of course Melanie's birthday cake, supplied by Joel and Stephanie.

What's Christmas without a car repair

If anyone ever leaves my table hungry, it's because they were all, my body, my choice.

As I started to say earlier, everyone began arriving in the mid afternoon. We'd set a time of six o'clock for dinner, so there was plenty of time to settle in and have conversations.

I'd worked hard on my Christmas tablescape but had stopped short of laying plates. Stephanie and the children did the honors.

Dollar store clear plates held down the Merry Christmas napkins

With some squeezing -- and a handy card table, and the use of every portable chair in the house -- we can seat all fourteen. Cozy.

Chad and Erica had gotten their wires crossed and thought dinner would be served at six thirty, but we knew they'd get there eventually so we started without them.

Everybody tucked in to all the goodies and then Cherica did show up and got their plates, and there was lots of laughter and it gets pretty loud at our house but that's okay.

The turkey breast awaits carving

The plan was to have presents directly after dinner and then to troop back to the table for dessert, coffee, and the birthday party.

It gets a mite chaotic in our TV room during presents ... all fourteen people, baby Ember trotting around this year, boxes and bags and tissue paper flying.

I don't really like my new pencil tree. It's more pencil than tree. But there were lots of presents.

Andrew brought some of the gifts in from under the tree in the front room, but they wouldn't all fit so we began opening presents, knowing that he'd go fetch the rest when we were ready.

We start out having one person at a time open a gift, with hopes that it doesn't devolve into a melee and then nobody sees what anyone else got.

I like to see people open what TG and I gave them. Mostly to make sure I didn't leave a gift or gifts unwrapped and shoved under a bed or something.

The Dickensian lamppost backs up the blingy reindeer

The orderly approach works pretty well for a while, but at some point people's curiosity gets the best of them and they start tearing into the gifts that have been placed at their feet.

At any rate the whole process took about an hour, and then I said that Stephanoel and Brandrew still needed to get all the stuff out of their stockings.

Ember, on her front porch, with a Christmas dress. Photo courtesy Brittany Weber.

Each year I hang four enormous stockings -- one for each of our children. These suckers are three feet long and I pack them full of stuff.

There are all kinds of things included: pictures and candy and socks and what have you. Just fun things to have.

So that took at least fifteen additional minutes while the two families who would not be with us on Christmas Day, had seen and touched and opened every gift bought for them by those of us who will be here, while they are there.

Dagny, by the Cracker Barrel fireplace, with a reindeer.

"There" being Knoxville for Andrew and Brittany and Baby Ember, and Pennsylvania for Stephanie, Joel, Melanie, Allissa, and little Andrew.

At long last it was done and everyone was laughing and carrying on, and we began talking about going upstairs and me starting the coffee and cutting into those pies and celebrating Melanie's birthday.

Melanie waited for the moment when her candles were set ablaze

But first, Chad spoke up. All he got out was We have an announcement ... and from the look on our Erica's pretty glowing face, we knew what it was.

I don't remember what Chad said next but it was language that confirmed the news of a baby being on the way.

We sang Happy Birthday to you, and her smile was brighter than the candles

Such rejoicing ensued, I think you would have been impressed, had you been a fly on the wall.

Andrew let out a reasonable facsimile of the rebel yell. Everyone was hollering and leaping up to embrace the new mother.

They're out! Let's eat this cake!

(She is not a mother-to-be. She is a mother. She is the mother of the baby -- not the baby-to-be -- that, all things proceeding apace as planned, will be born in the summer.)

Many tears of joy flowed; if there was a dry eye, I did not see it.

Chad and Erica were married in May of 2018. For some time, they have been ready to start a family, and truth be told, we were becoming a trifle anxious about it.

Mince pie is my favorite. Not many share my obsession.

But God answered prayer and now we can say that something truly wonderful happened in 2020, and look forward with rapt anticipation to the birth of a precious new baby in 2021.

That entire scene ran its course and, buoyed by joy and happiness like no other, we assembled once more at the table to eat sweets and resume loud talking and laughing.

All things were made ready

The children's eyes were bright and Melanie was ecstatic as we lit candles and sang to her and she discovered what was in the boxes and bags that had been set aside for her birthday.

Far from being exhausting, it was all very inspiring. But in due time the ones who were going to other houses to sleep, departed.

We who would slumber beneath our roof, eventually toddled off to bed as well.

Merry Christmas to all, and God bless us every one

What a wonderful day it was. A completely happy day. One we will never forget.

Stephanie's family headed back to North Carolina before noon on Saturday. Brittany and Andrew and Baby Ember stayed over and went to church with us on Sunday morning.

I made all my darlings who were present, pose for one last picture in the church parking lot.

Smiles of joy and gratitude

And now, today, on Christmas Eve, there will be six assembling for our traditional buffet. Well -- seven, counting Baby Porter. Which we do.

I've made the spicy cranberry meatballs, and two kinds of cheese ball, and a chocolate pecan pie, and a cherry pie with a lattice top. I made three loaves of banana nut bread, but those are for the households of three neighbors.

TG will trot the loaves to their respective doorsteps today, and greet said neighbors and wish them a Merry Christmas, and will no doubt return home with something tasty they've sent to us.

Let it be Christmas everywhere

Today I am making cranberry-apple tartlets and deviled eggs and pastry stars (Dagny last week asked if she could have one of the stars atop my mince pie, giving me the idea of cutting stars out of pastry and decorating them, just for her), and a Santa hat pie, which I hope goes well.

Audrey and Erica will be bringing other goodies.

Tomorrow there is an entirely different menu. I promise you, we will eat well.

Brittany's pistachio cake

And I hope you do too. I hope and I pray that each of my friends in blog land, whom I cherish, and others who may be reading, will enjoy all of the warmth and love your heart could desire this Christmas.

May as much happy news come your way, and as many delectable treats and satisfying meals, and as stunning an array of lovely gifts, as you could ever dream of having.

Because you are special. Not just to me -- although certainly to me -- but to many others, some of whom you may not even realize are looking to you throughout the year for encouragement, and for affirmation of good and happy things.

Whatever comes, may we be true to the vision of what we know to be just and right.

And that is all for now.

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Happy Thursday :: Merry Christmas Eve

Heart and soul at Christmas

I included a print of this in my South Carolina Christmas cards

I don't want to be guilty of allowing the entire festive season to elapse without showing you the results of our family Christmas card shoot.

Fully realizing, as I do, how important it is to each of you.

I will thank you not to snicker. Just go and get your hot chocolate with extra mini marshmallows, and settle in. There are fewer than two thousand pictures in this post.

The Weber Clan Black Friday shoot (we don't shop on that day, unless it's online or unless it's our Brittany, who does tend to hit a few stores in person) has become an annual tradition, although in the early years, the purpose of the outing was only to give our eldest daughter, Stephanie, and her husband, Joel, some photos to work with for their family Christmas card.

Stephanoel plus Melanie, Allissa, and Andrew :: Christmas 2020

Occasionally we'd get a whole-family photo for TG's and my card, if everyone was around, but it wasn't an every-year thing.

At least I don't think it was. Sometimes, to be perfectly honest, I forget.

At any rate, last year, in addition to Christmas card photos of Stephanie's family, I took pictures of Audrey and Dagny, and of Chad and Erica, for their cards.

For TG's and my 2019 card, I used a picture of us at the wheel of the vintage vessel Friendship of Salem, taken by an obliging fellow tourist, during our visit to that storied Massachusetts city in November.

Salem, MA :: November 3, 2019 :: Click to Embiggen

I think I look right piratey in that picture. If you disagree, do feel free to share keep it to yourself.

But this year, as you know because I've told you at least fourteen times, all fourteen of us -- TG and me plus our four children and two sons-in-law (it's not son-in-laws; don't say that) and one daughter-in-law and the five grandchildren -- were present and accounted for on Thanksgiving day and indeed for the entire weekend.

This isn't the one I used for our 2020 Christmas card. In fact I don't know why I'm showing it to you. We look like ghosts.

Late November can be chilly in South Carolina but this time it was a warm day, and in the mid afternoon, when the light was pretty, we all headed downtown to the State House grounds.The possibilities for varied and interesting backdrops there are practically endless.

Before swarming the capitol building grounds, however, we spent a half hour across the street, in the graveyard of historic Trinity Episcopal Church.

I am always drawn to the small, salmon-colored mausoleum with its gothic arches and a huge broken stone leaning against it, inscribed PARR 1817. Our Andrew and his wife, Brittany, and little Ember were dressed in colors that looked as though they'd planned to be photographed there.

Brandrew plus Ember :: Christmas 2020

Brittany didn't use any of the pictures I took for their actual Christmas card, since they'd already had their pictures done by a professional photographer and her cards were ordered. But I took delight in the family's posing for me anyway.

I got our Erica and her beloved, our son-in-law Chad, to stand by the mausoleum too, with Sibyl the Chorkie as a mischievous, furry little prop.

Cherica plus Sibi :: Christmas 2020

I think I told you that TG and I, plus Chad and Erica and Audrey and Dagny, went back to the State House the following Tuesday, December first, when it was freezing and windy, and did retakes because I felt that this first lot did not look Christmasy enough. 

But on balmy Black Friday, having taken many photos of Stephanie's brood both in the graveyard and in the gorgeous grounds on the opposite side of the church, and having all finally assembled (since we'd come at staggered times in separate cars), we headed across the street to the State House.

Our Tar Heel treasures :: Christmas 2020

In a few days I hope to share with you photographic evidence of our whole-family Christmas celebration, slated to take place this Friday, December eighteenth, again at our house. 

The following Monday, Stephanie's five will head up to Pennsylvania to spend Christmas with Joel's family.

This isn't the one we used for our card either, but it's a lot like one of the two that we used

But before they do, we will mark not only Christmas but our Melanie's sixteenth birthday, which is on the first day of winter, or the shortest day of the year.

Melly was born and has lived with semi-serious health issues and yet is so precious, so brave, so good a girl. I wish you could know her. Her siblings are devoted to her and a great help to their mother.

Audag :: Christmas 2020

Audrey, our second daughter, and six-year-old Dagny, our third granddaughter, are both photogenic and experienced at posing for their picture. I estimate that I alone have snapped eighty-two thousand photographs of Dagny Clare, give or take, and that doesn't even account for the approximately one point two million her mother has taken of her.

I edited this one on the dark side due to their expressions, and we've jokingly named it Covid Christmas

Don't you think it's amazing, these phones? Especially the iPhone 11, which I have, and that portrait mode thing. I used my expensive Nikons and the phone for these shoots. You can probably tell which is which, but only if you look closely.

I think this is one of the two they used for their Christmas card

And with the phone it's so easy! The blasted thing is almost part of our hands anyway. It makes my first point-and-shoot camera look like a difficult dinosaur, thirty-five pixels or whatever it was.

At the State House, in addition to the massive wreaths bedecking the building itself, there's a stately Christmas tree on the north lawn.

Chad was under the weather on the cold day when we did retakes, but he was a good sport

If news outlets are to be believed about anything this year (iffy), the 2020 South Carolina State Christmas Tree is a thirty-foot-tall concolor fir grown by Pinetum Tree Farm in Swanton, Maryland. Dominion Energy and the Columbia Garden Club decorated it with thirteen thousand lights and nine hundred ornaments.

We made good use of that Christmas tree and the steps of the Confederate monument beside which the tree stands

Dagny was keen to pose beside the tree, with Sibi in the frame. She wants a dog. Not this year. Well she wants one this year but she will not be getting one this year.

Sibi is not Dagny's dog but she sort of doesn't mind acting like it

There was no method to our shooting session; we just walked around and someone would say, we'd like our picture there, and so we'd do that, or I would say so-and-so, pose up right there, and we'd do that.

What are these pink things

I knew that Brittany and Andrew wanted some photos of Ember by herself. They only have approximately five hundred thousand pictures and videos of her, so this was of paramount importance. Oddly enough, I did not complain.

I found some leaves

The baby took her first steps on November ninth at age eleven months and six days, and was still a trifle unsteady on Black Friday but not enough to cause any alarm.

Even so, we sat her on a bench.

Ember. Click to Embiggen.

Naturally, Andrew and Brittany wanted the classic hand-holding-while-walking-the-tot shot.

Wherever we go, we go together

Sibi, being the only dog present (well, Stephanie's family dog, Shiloh, was in their vehicle but wasn't invited out to play), got her picture taken several times.

Sibi, in mama's arms, with a Christmas sweater

She even climbed the steps of the State House -- there are lots of those -- and posed at the top.

High Sibi :: Click to Embiggen

The non-Christmasy outfits on our first outing, weren't the only reason I insisted that we go back for retakes early the next week.

The sun was melting through the trees :: Click to Embiggen

There was also the issue of lights. As in, after we'd worked hard to get pictures of each group in front of a giant wreath, and had moved fifty yards away to the Christmas tree, I looked back at the State House.

We feel small

And realized that, precisely at five o'clock, the lights that adorned all four of the gigantic wreaths plus the decoration at the building's apex had twinkled on, resulting in a breathtaking sight.

May the circle be unbroken

We'd taken all of our wreath pictures with a lovely melting sunset behind, but no lights aglow on the wreaths themselves.

Posing beside the path

I said, this will never do. But no one was amenable to going back to redo the wreath poses, on a warm day when they'd already been posing off and on for over ninety minutes.

Stephanie and Joel's group were headed home. The rest wanted to go back to my house and order pizza.

After this we are going to Cracker Barrel

Five days later, since the sun set five minutes earlier, we had illuminated wreaths and a melty sunset at the same time.

Keep me warm, Mommy

And we took full advantage of it.

Overall we pretty well covered the north and west sides of the State House grounds. It would have taken two more hours to pose up on the other sides, as the place is huge.

One more by the big tree

I'm never ready for the chagrin I experience on those occasions when, certain groups of loved ones having assembled, I fail to get the pictures. Get the pictures. It's important.

Autumn days with you

It doesn't matter really, how much you plan it, or what form the shoot takes. It's irrelevant whether you take five pictures, or fifty, or five hundred.

Just you and me, and baby makes three :: Click to Embiggen

Just take them. You will never be sorry that you took the time, to take the pictures.

When we did phase two of our Christmas shoot on December first, as I have said, it was cold. There was a stiff wind out of the west, and because of that. the flags are flying full-out on top of the dome, in the photo at the top of this post.

Because of the cold and the lateness of the hour, few people were there.

An even dozen of our countless reasons to celebrate

It seems to me that America is in a late hour, and cold, and few people are cognizant of the big picture.

We reared our four children to love their country and to serve it, if only by being good citizens. Working. Worshiping. Paying taxes. Paying attention.

Not only have they done that and more, but they are teaching their own children to do the same.

Merry Christmas from me and TG

As this year draws to a close, I am concerned that freedoms I have never once taken for granted, are being systematically and surgically removed from me and from my family.

I pray that God intervenes once more on our behalf. The hour is late, there is a dearth of warmth, and the day grows dark. I don't think I'm being dramatic to say that we are in a season of sorrow.

May God bless and keep your family this Christmas, and may He graciously again -- still -- bless America, and confound her enemies, both foreign and domestic.

Especially domestic.

And that is all for now.

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Happy Monday :: Happy Week

This one thing ... or two or ten

Ember turned one today

With Thanksgiving in the rear view, it's time to enjoy some good memories.

And gear up for Christmas.

I've almost got my prodigious Christmas card mailing completed. Notice I said almost. I won't bore you with the issues I have faced on that front, over the past several days.

At any rate the matter is resolved now (I hope) and the cards are so close to being in the mail, they can almost sense the hot breath of the franking machines.

We had the usual autumnal decorations

Since we were all together on Thanksgiving (all in this case meaning TG and me, our children, and their children, for a total of fourteen, and yes, we ate indoors), it was a noisy, hungry group.

On the night before Thanksgiving, when everyone had arrived safely, we had the spicy cranberry meatballs. Every last meatball was inhaled in record time.

And I made a recipe and a half. Next time I'll be more decisive and just double it.

Dagny dressed in the spirit of the first Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving, being dyed-in-the-wool traditionalists, we had turkey (my 22-pound bird turned out as juicy and succulent as anyone could wish with no brining, no basting, really nothing special ... I guess I'm just talented with turkey) with all of the trimmings, and we sat down at the stroke of four o'clock to eat it, just as planned, and it was all so good.

You're going to want a dollop of my homemade cranberry sauce

Dagny attended the feast dressed as a Native American. The reason being, she was supposed to show up attired thusly (well, to be accurate, she had the choice of being either a pilgrim or an Indian, and she -- or maybe her mom -- chose the latter) to school on Tuesday but came down with a wee malady the night before, that kept her home on the day.

Little Andrew was deeply into It's A Wonderful Life, playing on my kitchen flatscreen

So she told her mother -- who made the outfit, with a small amount of input from me -- that she was going to wear the getup for Thanksgiving day. Which she did, for about half an hour, until the headdress and the jewelry and who knows what else, hindered her in her quest for a high old time with her cousins, and she reverted to a non-Native American in play clothes.

When I was a kid, we always had Brown 'n' Serve rolls ... these were Hawaiian

The next day, Friday, we all trooped to downtown Columbia to take Christmas card pictures. It was so warm that most of us were in shirt sleeves and, in my case at least, flip flops. 

We had a great time climbing all over the South Carolina State House and its grounds. It's a truly gorgeous place, and basically matchless for scenery on a pretty day.

The scene where George Bailey begs old man Potter for money and learns he's worth more dead than alive

The only fly in the ointment was that, late in the outing, Dagny (who had been warned several times of the dangers) fell off a concrete something-or-other about twelve inches tall and hit the concrete below, shredding her knee.

Wouldn't you know that Andrew had an actual, official First Aid Kit in his child's baby stroller?

There was pie and plenty of it

So he produced that and, encouraging Dagny to "stay with me" like first responders do on TV, making her giggle through her tears, bandaged her up and added hot pink sticky tape for the girly effect.

Dagny assured us she'd learned her lesson. We shall see.

Sibyl, Chad and Erica's Chorkie (Chihuahua/Yorkshire Terrier mix), lent moral support during the fiery trial

That night, back home (minus the five who left after pictures and were on their way back to North Carolina), we ordered pizza from Hungry Howie's and hung out some more.

The next day -- Saturday -- we had set aside to celebrate the first birthday of baby Ember, our youngest grandchild.

One for the record books

Her actual birthday is December third, but since we couldn't all be together today because Ember lives with her parents in East Tennessee, we celebrated early.

She will have a second party this coming Saturday, with friends and family who live near enough to attend.

Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate

Brittany had thought of everything.

The theme was "Wild One" and there was a beautiful tablescape including tiny pink roses set off by sprigs of eucalyptus, and a huge bunch of massive balloons, and a drip cake decorated with silk flowers and a burlap banner, topped off with a golden numeral one.

She's only one, but she is one

After enjoying lasagna with salad and bread sticks catered from Olive Garden, we partook of the cake, which was moist and sweet and excellent, just like Ember.

When we sang Happy Birthday to her, I think she really understood that all of the excitement was because we adore her. There is a video.

Enthusiasm for parties runs in the family

Then the birthday girl her mom and dad opened her many presents, which included the usual array of toys, books, and outfits.

(The child loves books. Reading time, between bath and bed, is her favorite time of the day, with the possible exception of meal times.)

I believe these words to be true

I don't have to tell you that I took lots of pictures, so that I could show you everything.

On Sunday we went to church, after which Andrew and Brittany and Baby Ember headed home.

The cake plate awaited the arrival of the cake

On Monday, I think I rested. I know that I needed to.

On Tuesday, the high temperature in Columbia was forty-six (for a few minutes, after which it dropped). Also it was windy. That night we had our first hard freeze.

Despite all of that, TG and I met up with Audrey and Dagny and Chad and Erica, to do some retakes on our Christmas pictures.

Age is just a number

We wore more Christmasy attire than we had on the over-warm day after Thanksgiving, and waited until all of the festive lights popped on so that we could pose beside them.

It didn't take long. Afterwards we all went to Cracker Barrel for supper, and I even did a spot of Christmas shopping on the way out.

I know you're all fascinated by these details of the past week, and I'm sorry I can't provide more, but it would be gilding the lily because face it: you're caught up.

Love is all you need

More plans are in the offing for the weekend, which starts on Friday, and I'll tell you about all of that next week.

Until then, know that if you are reading this, I am most likely grateful for you, and even if I don't know you from Adam's off ox, but you are reading anyway, I'm still grateful for you.

I wish you a happy December and a satisfying start to your Christmas season, with all the festivities you can stand, and unexpected joys, and precious gifts of all varieties -- both seen and unseen.

And that is all for now.

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Happy Weekend