Ringing in 2018

Happy New Year to all of you, my blogging friends!  I trust you enjoyed the holidays with friends and family.  We always have a house full at Christmas.

 Our daughter and son-in-law come to visit for several days around Christmas.  As well as our son and his boys.  Every bed in our home is used!  Our hearts are thankful to be together during the holidays.

  During the holidays while our immediate family is visiting we also host an extended family get together. We have done this for years.

 Now as I'm getting older, I realize I may need to scale this process differently.  How to do it will be a major mind project for Grayden and I. 

 I truly love having my family gather every year in our home, but it's a lot of work!  If any of you have gone through this and scaled down please let me know what your process has been.

  I know in a couple of months, I will forget how tired I am now and will plan to have the same process next year.  I'm really not happy when I realize I need to scale back, but I must!

 Family is so important to me.  It's really my world, my love, my life.  

December at Home

 I've been focusing on our trip to England for the last couple of months.  The title of my blog after all is, The Joy of Home with Martha Ellen.  I haven't forgotten at all about home and what it means to me.  Home is where my heart lies.   Home is where my family is and that is my world and my love.  I'll continue to share our trip with you, but it's December and I can't let the month slip by without recording some of our activities.

We had our first little snow that turned the gray, bleak landscape a pretty white.

Our son's birthday was celebrated early on in the month!

The beautiful Long Night's moon lit up the sky early in the month as well.  The long nights ahead remind me that winter is knocking at our door.

We decorated the tree with some ornaments that have hung on our tree for 50 years!  We don't have a themed tree.  Our tree is the history of our family.  Ornaments from our parent's trees as well as many we have collected over the years.

I always make cookies with the grands at Christmas.  We had so much fun measuring, mixing and some of us eating the dough.  Then baking and enjoying the cookies of our labor.

Fun times with the grands snuggling on the couch.  These guys are taller than I now so snuggling is a little harder, but I do love that they still sit on my lap for a little while.

It's a busy time in our home as I know it is for you.  I always want to clean a little extra to get the house shining for family times over Christmas.

Cabinets needed to be emptied and glassware washed.

How does so much dust get inside of closed cabinets?  Also it's quite difficult to take photos of mirrored cabinets!

It's the most wonderful time of the year as we celebrate Christmas.  There are more cookies to bake, and presents to wrap and loved ones coming to visit.  Yes, home is where my heart is! ♥