Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! (this post is for you big brother!)

Today my brother took the bus from Harrisville, MI to Toledo, OH to be able to board an Amtrak train to Boston tomorrow morning around 3 am. He'd been visiting us since December 11th when he arrived with Hal who had spent the previous week hunting in MA and NH with my younger sister's boy friend. I'd say we had a pretty good time. Walked the dogs a lot, watched a lot of movies, ate too much food, and talked a lot. We hadn't seen each other in the 3.5 years since our mother passed away.

A few days later my younger sister and her boy friend arrived with Lyra and much chaos and merriment ensued. (YAY!) More shopping, movie watching and of course, on Christmas day the opening of a few gifts which actually didn't happen till about 7:30 pm, the day was total chaos which seems odd for 5 adults and 3 dogs.

Christmas Morning

Dinner was a roast duck and a chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, creamed corn, hot rolls, stuffing and gravy, wine, and pumpkin pie. I swear my sister and I spent all day in the kitchen though. Next year I'd like not to do that so I'm thinking a ham and side dishes instead, quite a departure for us, I think I've always had some kind of bird for Christmas dinner.

We had quite the cold snap here, too. One night the low temperature was -11.6 degrees. Now it's been colder than that here but not in a few years. And we have had lots and lots of snow! It seemed we'd get 3-4 inches, then an inch a couple nights, then another 4-6, it just kept adding up and not melting due to the cold weather. There was eventually over a foot of fluffy snow till yesterday when it hit close to 40 degrees. But it's back to cold weather and wind tonight and probably more snow in the near future.

Home on Christmas Evening

My 2 siblings and I went to Alpena to see the second Hobbit movie. It was very enjoyable. We ate 2 big buckets of popcorn, the first before the movie had even started. What can I say? We didn't have lunch and it was a 4:30 matinee.

But I am tired now, went back to Alpena with my sister and Hal's sister. Bought an artificial tree, a crock pot, a shower curtain rod and miscellaneous Christmas stuff at half price. A couple future Christmas gifts for some lucky person, too. Time for bed and a good book.

edited to add photos