A family holiday...

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday.  Ours was spent with family as usual... Christmas Eve with my husband's family and Christmas Day with mine.

Christmas morning was just myself, my husband and my son.  It's the first year that our whole "family" wasn't here for Christmas morning so we did things a bit different.  With my daughter and her boyfriend coming up mid day from his family's celebration, we decided to hold off and have our stockings, yep we still "do" stockings" just before bed so that we could all still share in that tradition.

And under the tree for me this year?  Well a Kindle Fire.... for blogging on the couch or anywhere actually!  I don't plan to use it for reading since my original Kindle from a couple of years ago is still chugging along even after the hundreds and hundreds of books I've read (seriously)... plus the e-ink is much easier on the eyes... but for pure Internet use the Kindle Fire is going to be a fun addition!  So if you receive a comment from me... and it's well, full of typos, you now know why... that keyboard is going to take some "getting used to" by me!

This year, Christmas Day dinner with my family, was at Red Gate Farm.  A surprise windstorm almost slowed things down since our power went out mid-day for about an hour... and no, I wasn't stressed out about it at all... no big deal that 17 people are coming over and you have no power... I was beginning to think that we'd never get visitors at the rate we were going with party "snafus".  Actually, if the power had stayed out, dinner would have gone on with cold ham and homemade rolls... after all of our snacking throughout the day a big dinner probably wouldn't have been missed.

Fortunately for me, and the hope to ever have someone come to my house again, the power came back on in plenty of time and dinner was a go... we all squeezed around the table (and extension of card tables).

Fifteen of us in all... and yes, I purposely blurred these shots... since I assume nobody really likes their photo on my blog with photos of them actually eating but I kind of forgot to take pictures... or maybe it was because I was a bit busy in the kitchen???

And the new year will be bringing some changes to our family and to Red Gate Farm...

My daughter and her guy?  Well, they had an announcement when they arrived...

They're engaged!  A wedding is already in the planning stages for the summer, the setting is will be spectacular since they are planning to have the wedding at his parents' home... with this gorgeous view.

Life is a bit of a whirlwind here these days between the holidays, the be-here-before-you-know-it wedding, and the fact that my son has purchased a house and will be moving out in the next few weeks, well after a bit of painting and fluffing by me... of course!  And I suppose a bit of hammering and sawing by some others...

Unsure how I feel about the empty nest... but I do know... 2012 is going to be a little bit like a roller coaster ride!