my kind of christmas

It's so nice to be home for the holidays. There's nothing like being with family this time of year.


We celebrated Christmas with the Montgomery clan in VA. The theme for this year's gifts: Home mades and Hand-me-ups. That meant all gifts were made with our own sweat and tears (well, more like sugar and butter) or donated from our collections of drawers and closets. End result: fabulous edible, wearable, gifts that had more thought than cash put into them.

And we finally got to eat the meal Tom and I spent so many days in Bolivia fantasizing about. Christmas dinner at my mom and dad's is what I would choose if I had to eat one meal for the rest of my life. Roast beef, mashed potatoes, yorkshire pudding, and chocolate log for dessert. I bet there was a vegetable in there, but I don't remember it. Mmm, that kitchen smelled so good.

Other highlights from our time in Charlottesville in December:

Making loads of holiday goodies. Eating loads of holiday goodies.

Playing with friends. Here's Jed, our godson playing with the best toy man ever invented -the cardboard box.

Throwing parties. Going to parties.

Being with our good friends.

At one holiday get together, there were five of us who'd been in the Peace Corps. At 30, I was the youngest of the five, and in her late 70's, Ginger was the most grown up of all. She is a current volunteer in South Africa. The others, who were all in the Peace Corps in the 60's: Alison, my ma, served in Malaysia, Trina was in the Marshall Islands, and Rick was in Panama. So cool.

Kirby and Jenna came to visit us after Christmas. We stayed at the farm house and it was just like the good old days in Free Union. It's so good to be home amongst great friends and beautiful places.

Gabe and Luke went goose hunting and got two geese, and Sunny, Jessie, and I helped pluck them. That was the coolest thing i've ever plucked. The outer feathers came off first, in big handfuls, revealing a layer of thick, warm down underneath. We bagged up the down (covering ourselves in feathers from head to toe in the process) and Gabe cooked the birds. That's the good Virginia life right there.

Our friends threw a sweet Christmas Sweater party.

And we had a fun get together for Jessie's b-day.

I made a cheesecake for her, and then Tom drop kicked it on the way to the car.

But we scooped up a good portion of it, and gave it to her anyway.

She didn't mind a bit.