What An Amazing Week!

Hope you and your families had a truly special holiday.  

This has truly been a very magical and beautiful week.  It started on Monday night.  We went to see Chanticleer at the Carmel Mission.  If you have never heard them, they are an incredible male chorus out of San Francisco.  It was one of the best concerts I have ever attended.  So absolutely beautiful. They are best known for performing Biebl's Ave Maria.  Here is a link:  Chanticleer Ave Maria  The audience was so enthusiastic and gave them such a long standing ovation that lasted for several minutes, so at the last moment they performed the Ave Maria even though it was not on the program.  I nearly cried.  It was stunning.

We were both a little sleepy for work the next day, but did not have time to be sleepy.  There was much to be done.  I got out of work early and prepped for a long evening.  We had Norwegian Christmas Eve dinner with my BFF's family and then headed out our late night service at our church.  I am in the choir so we had to be there early to warm up and prepare. However, it was a huge service, with the Bishop presiding, so we needed to be at our best.  It was such a beautiful, joyous service.  It was worth it, getting out around midnight.  

Christmas Day was perfect.   My sweetheart gave me the most beautiful yellow sapphire and diamond ring.  I was not expecting such a beautiful and extravagant gift.  It is so pretty and I do not think I will ever take it off.  Liesl has been a very good girl this year and had a stocking full of wonderful things including some special bones from Whole Foods.  

The best part of the day was dinner with my wonderful family.  We cooked and everyone came to my sweetheart's condo.  My family is pretty goofy, so we laughed a lot.  Although my sweetheart is of British descent, he was not familiar with the tradition of poppers and wearing a silly paper crown all through dinner (his Grandmother, whom he and his family lived with was from Great Britain. Many of his traditions are very British.)  The subject came up earlier this year as we were watching the Vicar of Dibley (I heart Geraldine!) and it was one of the Christmas shows.  He wondered why everyone was wearing paper crowns on the show.  I am proud to say that he has now spent a Christmas in a silly paper crown, too.  There was a family imposed penalty for whomever removed their crown first.

Speaking of Great Britain, I can not wait until the first episode of the new season of Downton Abby next week.  We are planning a dinner of bangers and mash and an English Ale.  I am so excited!  We are trying to figure out a good dessert for our meal.  It is going to be awesome.

I am going to try to actually stitch in the new year.  It is one of my resolutions.  It has been way too long and I really miss it.  Maybe I will start small with an ornament of something just to get my feet wet again.  In the meantime, there are books to be read, a garden to be planned, naps to be taken and much joy to be experienced.