Christmas at Hayes House

In the last 4 or 5 years our Christmas's have been different from years before.  I had lost my parents in 2007 and 2008.  We had spent all of or at least part of every Christmas with them and our kids.  Our kids have grown up and moved away, so holidays have been quiet and lonely.  This year we decided to approach it a different way and just enjoy the season regardless of who does or doesn't come.

All the neighbors put up their lights and the various neighborhood Christmas events began.

We decorated our tree--putting the toddler friendly ornaments on the bottom, helped with the neighborhood celebration and made our own plans.  The the week after Thanksgiving our son came to visit.  It was  great surprise since we hadn't seen him since the summer.  We had a chance to celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas and his birthday with him.  He arrived just in time to enjoy our first snow of the season.

Looking down our street

Austin at the TExas Tech seal on campus.

A week later our daughter and two granddaughters  came for the weekend.  We celebrated Christmas with them.  There is nothing quite like Christmas with little ones around.  The only thing missing was our son-in-law, Adam, and it would have been perfect. He was home working on a final project for a class at TCU.

Maisie and Alice in their Christmas dresses.

We surprised Erin, Adam and the girls with a bike carriage for the girls, and bicycles for Erin and Adam.

Maisie declared that the trailer was not a trailer but a carriage...like Cinderella's.

Erin and Maisie took off on their trial run in the rain.

We couldn't tell though who was more excited about the carriage and bike, Maisie or Erin.

Little Alice had grown so much and we could even see that she now has hair.  She is bright eyed and wants anyone who comes along to pick her up.  Her favorite activity seemed to be keeping an eye on all the lights on the Christmas tree.

Since Jim is a birder our tree is decorated with about 100 different kinds of birds.  Erin came in the front door yelling, "There is a  bird on the tree! I yelled back, "Yeah about 100  of them."
She said, "No no a bird flew in the door when I came in."  I looked up and there was a little male house finch sitting on top of the Christmas tree.  After opening the doors and some careful herding, we managed to hustle him back out the front door.  I guess birds get cold too.

I hope everyone else's Christmas is as fun and joyous as ours has been.  Christmas can be any day you make it!!

Merry Christmas!!