2023 Christmas Greetings from the DeBeers
Another year has flown by. We are blessed to have our kids and family close. We we stay very busy with their activities, the gardens, organizations and our hobbies. We thought we should slow down and count our blessings. Here are twelve that are 'loosley' adapted to 'The Twelve Days of Christmas".
ONE
Lilly joined our family the end of January. Being able to watch her grow and learn new things has been wonderfully entertaining.
TWO
Clare and Charlotte will soon be five. They love to come to visit the goats, cats, play, swing, climb on the pirate ship, slide and eat from Opa's garden.
THREE
The above mentioned goats.
FOUR
Parker and Mason enjoy the outdoors, fishing and hunting. Both got their deer this year. Their parents join them too.
FIVE
If I had know Grandchildren were so much fun, I would have had them first!
Charlotte, Claire, Mason, and Parker holding baby Lilly.
SIX
Kate and Nick are working on six years together. They also both like the outdoors, paddling the Boundary Waters, and fishing throughout the year. They have also taken time to travel to concerts and participate in festivals.
SEVEN
Charlotte and Claire helped Opa with all the stages of making apple cider. We thought they would stay long enough to see the process and have a taste but they kept Opa at it until all the apples were crushed into cider.
EIGHT
Harry had to restock our laying hens this spring which meant building a new little hen house to protect the chicks from the old hens. All cohabit now and provide us and anyone who visits with eggs.
NINE
It was the third year for our annual sculpture walk and second for the Delano Sculpture Fest. Twenty one applications were submitted for twelve spots. Two of the sculptures have been purchased so far. We also had a permanent sculpture 'Trumpeter' installed. Only nine of the sculptures made this page but all can be seen on delanoMNarts.org.
TEN
We are trying to downsize our gardens which made more work this year. It is hard to believe that this was an alfalfa field 26 years ago. Kate and I spent the summer relocating our favorite plants, giving away the ones that have overgrown their spots and yes some ended up in the compost. The large boarder garden is now down a third and the spruce berm no longer has under plantings.
ELEVEN
For Father's Day, Harry received a Pizza Oven for the lake house. He said it will be an easy way to entertain. He wasn't thinking about prepping the dough a day ahead. Kim and Joe were the guinea pigs. We got the timing down with Harry's sister Donna (Larry) and brother Larry (Bernadine). When cousin Rick and family came, the kids made their own dough. Perhaps more than eleven pizzas were consumed.
TWELVE
We had an amazing twelve days in Vietnam and Cambodia with friends, Mary and Lance. There was never a dull moment. Highlights included a float plane ride to Halong Bay to spend a night on a Junk, riding Vespas through downtown Saigon at night, Angkor Wat, progressive dinners, a Vietnamese cooking class (lots of chopping but no casualties), and of course libations but not while riding Vespas or chopping.
Wishing you a Very Merry Christmas
and a Happy and Healthy New Year!
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