A little late but Christmas Day at our house

Gregg started taking photos straight away. 

 First things first, we have to fill up the bird feeders and put out peanuts and sunflower seeds for the squirrels.....

and Gregg takes a self portrait.  One of these days we're going to remember to slow down and set up the tripod, but until then....

like father and son here's Brad taking a self portrait of him with Lisa.

Here's his result of that photo.

Brad gets one photo of Mum checking on the food in the oven.  Back in England I grew up on a turkey dinners on the 25th, but as that is traditionally served up at Thanksgiving over here and with Thanksgiving and Christmas being so close together, several years ago we mutually decided on Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding.  

Celia and I in the kitchen with Gully in the fridge.  We're guessing he's looking for his buttermilk.

Brad with his Grandpa catching up.  It's been a while since they had a chance to chat.

Celia showing me some of her family's Christmas photos.....

and again with Lisa and Brad.

Papa takes Celia's place for a while.....

but later she sits on the other end of the sofa to enjoy her cup of coffee from our new coffee pot.  We play a lot of musical chairs.

Both relaxing after the meal.

And now Gregg and Gully are looking through some old family slides taken back in Puerto Rico when Gully was stationed there back in the early 50s.  Gregg's brother was born there.  We're trying to figure out how best to convert the slides and put them on the hard drive, and then turn a few into prints.  

Time for one last photo before Lisa and Brad leave.

Here's a photo of our tree taken earlier in the day with the gifts around it.  There are a couple of neat books from Lisa and Brad that I will share later on, and there's a great new coffee pot from Celia and Gully.  

This is another little tree I keep near the television....

and I love this candle lamp that my friend Hazel gave to me.

And last but by no means least, two teddies joined our family.  Gregg bought me the L.L.Bean one - with a new camera - happy, happy, happy - and I treated myself to the little "Home for the Holidays" teddy when I saw her on sale a few days after Christmas.

It was a wonderful and very special time, but here we are already getting ready for 2012.  We don't have any special plans for celebrating tonight and will see the New Year in quietly.

To you all, A Very Happy New Year!!!!

Two days after Christmas

'Twas two days after Christmas, and all through the house

All the creatures were exhausted, even the mouse......

Thank you Antigoni

The day before Christmas when I picked up our mail, a delightful surprise was waiting for me.  I found a Christmas card and ornament in my mailbox from Antigoni of Antigoni's Diary.  Thank you my dear friend.  It is proudly displayed on the tree.   I can't tell you enough how much I appreciated your gift, and both card and ornament will be treasured always.

TODAY'S FLOWERS 2012

A few favorite photos from the archives, lovely memories of pleasant walks around one of our favorite parks two years' ago.

Possibly and not 100 percent certain, an Austin rose "Graham Thomas".

The color is very similar.

 Cockscomb Celosia

Jewelweed 

 Five Petaled True Rose

TODAY’S FLOWER’S was created by our good friend Luiz Santilli Jr.

You can find beautiful flowers from around the world if you click here.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

This is Sophie.  With thanks to Kenneth and David, her human family, Sophie is my Camera Critters photo today.  To find other adorable Sweeties, you can click on the button in my side bar.

Teddy Bear Collection

If you've been looking at my blog for a while, you may have seen the occasional post of my Teddy Bear collection.  They don't appear that often as I haven't bought any for a long time now, but occasionally I am given one that is welcomed as part of the Teddy Bear family and it is just as treasured.  I don't think the boys will be interested in this post, but maybe some fellow bear lovers/collectors.   If you're interested in the other posts, you can click on the label "Teddy Bears" below this post to see others I have shared.   The one of note below is my all-time favorite, the one-eyed teddy bear given to me by my Mum and Dad when I was a year old.  Believe me, he's been around for a LONG time!

From another teddy bear lover.

Below there are new additions, the three on the front left were given to me by Celia this past summer on one of our trips down to Virginia Beach.  I love them and you can probably see why.   I also love my blue-striped sock elephant, honorary teddy bear family member.  He was given to me by my dear son.  The honorary teddy bear white reindeer was given to me by friend Jackie on our last get-together with the girls and I'm happy he's joined us.

Another view in which you can see a few other Christmas decorations, the woodland Santa on the right which was a gift from Gregg's sister a few years ago, love him!   He comes out every December, as do the angels.  The little bear angel with the pretty pink dress holding a garland of stars was given to me by Celia last year.  

Above and below are the same bears with just a closer view.

My navy bear and others.  Gregg was in the navy which including his years at the Annapolis Navy Academy was over 20 years, so of course when I saw this lovely guy about ten years ago, I had to add him to the family.

Almost time for Christmas Day.  

Back sooner than I thought.....

It's the end of the day and I am sorting through a few photos I took earlier on.  Son came over this morning.  Schedules are all over the place so unfortunately Daughter-in-Law had to work but it was nice chatting to the lads in the kitchen as I fixed French Toast for breakfast.  

One quick photo in front of the Christmas Tree, far too much light in the background as you can see but I liked it anyhow.  Using the self-timer is always a challenge and I really should have set our camera up properly but suddenly we had a bit of a time crunch as Gregg had an upcoming conference call and Brad had to be away.   As often happens, I find myself rushing.

As Celia and Gully's arrival was later than usual, Brad had to get on to his next appointment.  But not to worry, he and Lisa will be joining us on Christmas Day. 

As I have been enjoying everyone's Christmas ornaments, I thought I would share a few of my own collection.   You can probably recognize a few Hallmark ones here.  I've been collecting them for years, ever since Brad was a year old.  As I love to feed the squirrels and always enjoy watching their antics, when I saw the snowman holding these little ones, I knew there would be a special place for them on our Christmas Tree.  Not one of these, the little girl below was a gift from a friend.  A bit hard to see but she has birds sitting on her arms.

Here's another bird, a Cardinal from the Hallmark series.  I have a few on the tree.

These were taken later on in the day.  Celia and Gully had arrived but they had had a long day of traveling, so I didn't want to bother them with photograph taking.  Plenty of time to do that in the next few days. 

More Hallmark ornaments.

You'll always find a Bobby on our Christmas Tree, which I bought in honor of my Dad who was a 30 year career police officer.  The little hula bear in the grass skirt is actually a stained glass sun catcher.  I bought him on a trip to Hawaii several years ago.

This is a new addition, a little Norwegian boy to honor Gregg's father's side of the family whose heritage is Norwegian.

And this one is for me.  It's a tiny suitcase I picked up several years ago on one of my trips to England.  If I remember correctly the suitcase was full of English Toffee.

A collector of Teddy Bears, I always put them out on the hearth every Christmas.  

Time to go to bed.  Sweet Dreams everyone.

~~~~~~

An addition to the above shared at 6.04 p.m. on Friday, December 23rd, 2011.

The snowman with the red fox is shown again because I was able to get a closer view of them.