Jason here. So Christmas has come and gone, and we had a good one.
There were 6 of us. David and Meridith drove down (after Covid tests!) from Minnesota on Christmas Eve and stayed with us through the weekend. Danny and Beckee came up each day from their Chicago apartment. Not a big crowd, but enough.
In addition to the humans, Danny and Beckee brought their 2 new kittens most days. Their names are Lucy and Olive. This is Olive checking out the Christmas tree. Combined with our Mollie and Walter, that made 4 cats in addition to the 6 humans.
The cats were very interested in the Christmas tree. The ornaments had to migrate upward to avoid getting knocked down, but none were eaten or destroyed.
We didn’t do major gifts, but we did our traditional customized homemade Christmas stockings, filled with peanuts-in-the-shell, chocolates, dried fruit, and the occasional pair of socks or coffee mug. We also had a nice fire going most days.
We cooked, ate lots of snacks, and played games, especially One Night Ultimate Werewolf, which I think has become a family favorite.
For Christmas dinner we had roast lamb, roasted root vegetables, and salad. We had eaten so much chocolate and so many cookies throughout the day that we didn’t really need dessert.
For myself, I was grateful to be able to spend a solid chunk of time with our kids and their partners. My appetite and energy level was much improved by a 3-week break from chemo.
It was a fun holiday, and as we kept things pretty simple, even a relaxing one. Though most of us were not quite as relaxed as Walter here.
I hope the holidays were good for all of you. Best wishes to all for a better New Year.
gardeninacity 
It is good to hear from you! We had a quiet Christmas here, just the two of us and the cats. The weather at this time of year in western Oregon is mostly cloudy with a lot of rain, although it seems the winter precipitation is a bit less each year. The seed catalogs are here, and we have been enjoying going through them. It’s time to place the order, so we can get things started indoors.
It sounds like a lovely time! So great to see your sons and their partners. It seems to be the year of the cat! My son and his wife got one too, their first. Here’s to a healthy new year.
I also had a lovely Christmas with two of my sons and grandkids. Here’s hoping we all have a healthy and happy 2021.
Wonderful to hear from you and seeing you looking so well! What a lovely family, sounds just perfect.xxx
Bravo for returning to us with such positive news! I think of you daily (no kidding).
Thank you for sharing your holiday with us. Great photos of all!
Looks like a delightful time was had by all. So glad you’ve had a chemo break…
I’m glad you had a nice Christmas surrounded by family, safely of course. I am happy to hear that you have a short break from chemo. You are in my thoughts and prayers. I, too, have a new black kitten after finding her cold and hungry on my patio at the end of September. She was about 4 weeks old at the time. Wishing you good health and much happiness in the New Year.
Glad you had such a lovely gathering with your family! All best wishes for the year ahead.
It’s a blessing you were able to get together with the “kids” and 4-legged grandkids. I wish the new year brings you good health and family get togethers in abundance. That photo with Walter made me chuckle!
Happy New Year!
Great family photos of a well celebrated Christmas. I am so very glad you all were able to spend the holiday together. Here’s to a better 2021 and good luck with your chemo.
Looks like you had a wonderful Christmas. Hope you are feeling better.
Great photos and so glad you had your family with you. Love that last photo! Wishing you and yours a safe and healthy 2021–keeping you in my thoughts, Jason!
It sounds like you had quite a lively holiday. So glad you were able to enjoy it. It is so funny watching cats investigate trees and all the trimmings, especially kittens. Did all the cats get along? I wish you and yours a Happy and Healthy New Year.
Sounds perfect to me, glad you had a chance to all be together in these strange times.
Wonderful to hear from you! Also great to see a picture of you (and your lovely family). You look so good. Like Judy, I am wishing you a successful year with your chemo treatments. Begone, cancer! Also, will be checking out the game to see if it’s something our family might like.
Glad everyone was together and had a good time!
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So glad you were able to have a good time with your family and that a “Chemo holiday” made it possible.
So glad that you were able to spend your Christmas with loved ones! Happy New Year.
Great news that you were able to have your family together for the celebrations. Stay safe.
So glad y’all had such a pleasant holiday, including the chemo holiday. Glad to see pictures of you all (kitties included), obviously relaxed and enjoying each other’s company. Best wishes for the new year.
Jason and Judy. Great pictures. Glad you had an enjoyable family get together. Lots of kitties — did any try to climb the tree? Perhaps that’s because I have dogs and cats will do that sort of thing to annoy them. I, too, made rugelach! And, Judy, when I made your tomato/bean dip, my daughter took a container of it to eat over pasta. She said it was delicious that way too. Best wishes for 2021.
What a great idea, over pasta! I’ll have to try that. To our surprise, no kittens tried to climb the tree, they only wanted to sniff it and steal ornaments. Happy New Year!
I’m glad you had a good time! May 2021 be at least a little less stressful.
Looks like a great Christmas, being with family makes it really special. Best wishes for a good 2021 .. I’m sure your garden will be calling in spring.😁🌞
What great fun to see your photos, and to see all those smiles! There was a lot to like in your post. I was especially taken with your stockings. The Menorah was a wonderful touch, but I especially enjoyed your details of the contents. My stocking always had many of the same things: an orange and nuts in the toe, a few small items like colored pencils, and chocolate. Sometimes there was a chocolate orange, but there always were gold foil covered chocolate coins: gelt! How that got to be a tradition in an Iowa Methodist household I don’t know, but I certainly loved them. I don’t remember it, but I’ve been told that the first year I received the coins, I saved some and tried to spend them at a store.
I’m so glad the family was able to be together. Here’s to a new year with many more such gatherings!
I am so glad you were all able to get together at Christmas and that you had such a good time as a family.
Wishing you much good health in 2021, Jason.
Oh gosh, Jason, somehow I had missed that you’re undergoing chemo. Yikes! It can be a rough ride, but I can tell you that it works wonders. My step-sister has been in treatment for late stage, metastasized pancreatic cancer, and all her tumors are either gone or have dramatically shrunk. It’s been amazing to follow her journey. All power to you, and I’m so glad you had a chance to celebrate with loved ones. Here’s to a infinitely better 2021!
What a wonderful gathering. We had ours via Zoom. Love that you had extra kittens added to the mix. Maybe some of your kittens can teach Millie some manners with the tree.
Glad you had a break from chemo for the holidays.
Ah, it looks like you got a good Christmas! This is probably a good time to be inside rather than out working in the garden anyway.
I am sorry that I miss your posts lately.
So good to hear you had a break from the treatment and could enjoy Christmas with more appetite. 😉 It is lovely seeing a family all together at Christmas and you were lucky it was possible at all this year. Wishing you and your loved ones a very happy New Year and to you especially, good health Jason. All the best.
Great to see you celebrating with your lovely family. Happiness ahead in the new year.
It was wonderful to see “Jason here.” I am so happy to see that you had a break and could enjoy the food of celebrations. With everyone else here, I wish you a very healthy new year, Jason, and better things ahead for you and Judy and your family. I’m taking a lesson from Walter — he knows how to ignore the world!
Glad to see you all smiles among your crowd! Cool cats, too.Happy new Year to ya’ll!
Hello Jason, I’m glad you had a warm, safe and comforting holiday period. I love the family photo and I can relate when you say that you had so many snacks and chocolates that you didn’t need desserts, though that still didn’t stop us. I hope 2021 is a significant improvement for all of us, it should be easy as 2020 set the bar very low.
Sounds like an absolutely perfect Christmas! We too kept is simple and enjoyed some of the things we did this year so much that I think they will become future traditions. Happy New Year to you and your family, Jason! XOXO