December 19, 2014: The Museums in Fort Worth
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Well, an eventful year has come to a close, one highlighted by our trip to South America in November. Now, in the closing days of the year, tradition takes over as I prepare Christmas Dinner for Fred and myself and the guests that we plan to have.

Actually, preparations for the Christmas Dinner began a couple of days earlier, as Fred decided he would try his hand at making a fruit pie (which turned out very nicely). As usual, Fred spent the night before Christmas Eve with his mother in DeLeon, and Christmas Eve with his stepmother and his brother down in Cleburne, before returning here late Christmas Eve. We had set up the Christmas tree before he left.

On Christmas morning, Fred and I and the cats had a great time opening gifts.

Of course, the cats helped a great deal, taking care of the wrapping paper and making sure it stayed neatly in the pile we made of it. There was some playful conflict among the cats as to who would do what, but they got things ironed out as they usually do. Click on the thumbnail images below to see Tyger, Lucky and Zack helping on Christmas morning:

We were all done with our opening in late morning, and then set about getting things ready for the guests who'd planned to come. We were going to have our friends Greg, Lynne and Lou over today; each would arrive at a different time, but all three would be at Christmas Dinner late in the afternoon.

Greg arrived first, after spending some time with our older friends John Lambert and John Toohey at their house nearby. We exchanged a few gifts with him, and Lynne arrived a bit later, after taking care of some of the many animals she looks after in her business as a pet sitter. Finally, Lou arrived about five, and we sat down to dinner shortly thereafter.

Here are a couple of clickable thumbnails for pictures of Greg, Lynne and Lou before dinner:

As is tradition, Christmas Dinner is a ham. (Between the Thanksgiving turkey and the Christmas ham, my freezer is full at the end of the year, with turkey dinners and ham dinners enough to last until November of the following year!) Everyone brought a dish or some dessert for us all to share; these cooperative dinners are always enjoyable.

On the day after Christmas, a few days before we planned to leave for Fort Lauderdale, Fred's old friends Frank and Joe stopped by. They had been up here in Fort Worth, as usual, visiting Frank's mother for Christmas, and we were pleased that they came over to Dallas before heading back to the Hill Country. We had a good visit, and as they were getting ready to head back south, we took a pair of pictures:

We had a really nice Christmas. Fred left for his house the next morning to check on everything and turn off the water to his greenhouse so that there would be no danger of freezing pipes while we were in Fort Lauderdale.

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	December 19, 2014: The Museums in Fort Worth
	Return to the Index for 2014