Happy New Year!

It's January 2nd, 2022 and I am finally getting off my lazy duff to do my Christmas post.

But first, I must comment on the weather. It has been so hot this past week that we have kept the windows open since before Christmas!  Yesterday it was 78 degrees! There were a couple of times this week that I thought about turning on the AC but never did because I kept thinking it would get cooler.  Which it never did.  Today, though, it's supposed to only be in the upper 60s and tomorrow the high is only going to be 43 so while that will be  more normal, it's going to feel very cold.  Oh well, that's life in the south....

Okay, back to Christmas!

I was prepping for our Christmas Eve party and Peter told me I needed to run outside to see the sunset.  Y'all!  I'm so glad I did because it was gorgeous!

These pictures are unfiltered straight off my phone.  So BEAUTIFUL!  God was totally showing off for Christmas Eve.  My Facebook was filled with beautiful images just like this from local friends.  So pretty!

Anyway, we enjoyed the Christmas Eve Lovefeast and Candle Light service at Enterprise Moravian with mom, my brother, and Jennifer's family. Then we all came back to our house for appetizers and drinks.  It was such a lovely evening!  I really love this little tradition.

On Christmas morning, we finally prodded the kids out of bed and unwrapped Christmas presents.  Per tradition, it's always stockings first, then presents.

After we unwrapped gifts, we went to Mass.  When we got home from church, Cathy and Eric had arrived and we headed over to mom's for Christmas lunch!  It was delicious as usual!  My mom is an excellent cook!

Cathy snapped this picture of us before we started to eat.

After lunch, we took our annual family photo and unwrapped more presents!

The next day was Sunday so we headed back to Mass and then back to my mom's for our normal Sunday lunch.  After lunch, we took Cathy and Eric to Old Salem and walked around. We got a picture under the Heritage Bridge with the Moravian Stars.  I was excited that we were able to get this picture because when we were taking our Christmas card pictures in Old Salem, there were too many people trying to get a picture with the stars.

Eric and Cathy

After touring around Old Salem, we headed home and relaxed and then ate dinner and then we decided to drive to Kernersville. We went to the Ceiner Botanical Garden to see their Spectacular Holiday Blooms display.  The 6000 "blooms" are actually recycled water bottles that have been turned into flowers.  It was really cool!

Cathy and Eric left on Monday morning, Dan had a doctor's appointment, Peter and Sarah had dentist appointments. Dan and I also attended a funeral for a friend of mine who passed away after fighting cancer and brain tumors for over a year.  It was a beautiful celebration of life and I'm so glad we were able to attend.

The rest of this past week has been a hot, hazy blur.  We had no real plans. We slept in, watched a lot of football, went out to eat a few times,ran errands, etc. We did decide that next year, we would make better use of this weird week in between Christmas and New Year's and try to plan a two night trip somewhere. Had we known it was going to be in the 70s all week here, we definitely would have planned a quick trip to the beach!  

I hope everyone has a happy, healthy, productive, joyful 2022!