November and December 2013: Bring on the Holiday Spirit!

November 17th, 2013: Sam and Kiley performed their stringed instruments (the viola and the cello) at a UNM Health and Sciences Orchestra concert held in the Kellar Auditorium. The "Swan Lake" pieces were our favorite, and they even had ballet dancers perform during the music! 

The side view of Kiley playing her cello 

A blurry-headed Sam playing his viola

I finally got around to finishing Christmas stockings for my newest grandchildren: 

Beau Dunlap, Joseph Hobbs, and our future granddaughter, Elise Hobbs

During the Thanksgiving holidays, my brother, Richard Pitcher, and his family visited from Oklahoma and stayed with our mom, Utako Pitcher. My step-brother, Johnny Pitcher, visited from Georgia and stayed with my sister, Jacqueline Babbitt and her family. On the evening before Thanksgiving, Mike and I met with my siblings and their spouse at a Chili's Restaurant and enjoyed a nice visit. None of us had seen Johnny in 16 years! He had come to Albuquerque for the first time, after our dad, John Pitcher, had passed away. Unfortunately, we didn't take any photos of my siblings! I wanted to go bowling or do something with them after dinner, but everyone was too tired. Mike and I did however, meet Richard and his family at a Sadie's Restaurant for dinner that weekend, and that was a nice little double date for us. 

As for "Turkey Day," my siblings got together at our mom's house for dinner. We would have joined them, but we had our own Thanksgiving dinner plans with our children and their families. This year, we had everyone here except Jessica and Sebastian's family, who traveled to Texas to spend the holidays with Sethrina (Seb's sister) and Josh Stoddard.

Our newest 9' pre-lit Christmas tree from Costco can change colors

Notice that our fireplace wall has something going on with it...
We would later install a Samsung 65" Smart TV there, a gift to our home and family 

The city was blanketed with snow in late November
These shots are from our back yard patio

These shots were from our bedroom windows

Running out of room for our family Christmas stockings

It all started with these two characters!

A closeup of our family members' stockings here and below
I used to fill these for each child, but now they're just part of our Christmas decor

This Christmas, instead of going to each of our children's homes, we invited each family over for dinner and gifts during the week before Christmas.

Jared and Jenny's family were the exception. We went to their home in Santa Fe to help them with their packing and loading for their big move to Palo Alto, California. Instead of making them dinner, Jared ordered pizza and had it delivered to their house. We took a break from working and had everyone open their early Christmas gifts. Then we ate the pizza on the living room carpet.

The following day, we met Jared's family at Cheddar's Restaurant for lunch. Jess and her boys joined us, and she was happy to see them and to be able to say her goodbyes. We love and miss you Jared, Jenny, Mario, and Milo.

On Christmas eve, we met the rest of our children at Golden Corral and invited my mom and youngest brother, Vernon, to eat with us. So many missed photo ops this holiday season!

The first of our children's families to come over for their pre-Christmas dinner and gifts was Jacob, Shauna, and Tyler.

After dinner, we sang a The Nativity Song together 

Beautiful Shauna and Tyler

Cute little Tyler man spies the gifts

Jacob leads us in our Christmas song

Christmas gifts ready to be opened

Me, Shauna, and Tyler

Anticipation of new toys and books to open

Daddy helps Tyler open his presents. Unfortunately,
we didn't take any pictures of the actual gifts or happy faces!

Tyler was so gentle and careful with the wrapping paper

We love you Jacob, Shauna, and Tyler 

The second family to join us was Sam, Kiley and Joey
Wish we had taken some pictures of Sam and Kiley!

Joey was a bit tired and was more interested in the pretty wrapping paper than the gifts!
We love you Sam, Kiley, and Joey

Sebastian and Jessica had a fun idea for their pre-Christmas with us this year. They decided to spend the night at our house and have a pretend Christmas morning with us the following day. It was an awesome idea in theory, but we all had a rough night: Beau was up crying quite a bit, and Hudson was out of sorts through the early morning hours and cried more than Beau! Needless to say, we were all tired and light-headed during our pretend Christmas! But we wouldn't have traded it for anything.

It was so fun to see Hudson and Beau rummaging under the Christmas tree
Check out the matching new p.j.'s the boys are wearing
They even match the wrapping paper!

Look how happy and excited Hudson is!

A sneaky baby Beau enjoys pulling the bows off the presents

I think Beau has picked his gift!

We started off the morning with a Christmas hymn

It was hard to keep Beau from climbing onto the larger boxes

Here we go!

More of Hudson's favorite Legos--Super Heroes

Now it's Mama's turn
Check out her new silky soft p.j.'s that kind of match the boys

More Super Hero stuff, and I see a happy face!

I think she likes her new suede slippers

Papa's turn with Hudson's help

I see some dress socks and a pretty rug

A warm fleece robe for Sebastian

Pretty earrings for a pretty girl

Opening her last gift--frame by frame

I'm guessing she likes the sweater?

And there you go--another pre-Christmas success!
We love you Sebastian, Jessica, Hudson, and Beau

After Christmas, we hosted another holiday meal for the Dunlap family-- Sebastian's parents, Geoff and Peggy Dunlap, plus Sebastian and his family. It was so much fun to have them here! Again, we forgot to take pictures. We'll do better next year!