Christmas 2005

Christmas 2005. Amanda's first Christmas. A Christmas in Seattle. All in all, a pretty good Christmas. Grandmother and Grandfather came for for a visit, too. Christmas morning was also Sunday morning. The little tree from when Mom was a kid perched nobly on the entertainment center for the first time, bedecked with Christmas ornaments Grandma and Grandpa had sent from Russia while they were on a mission there. The little green elf guarded presents for his second year, with help from a nutcracker Mom had gotten several years before. The little angel on the tree was handmade by Mom's Grandma Joan. Howie the philodendron even got a bow for the occasion, as seen in the far left.

And yet, all this historic decorating meant nothing to a sleepy little Amanda being hauled off to church first thing in the morning before opening presents.

As of 2012, there's just one church building that serves the main area of Seattle proper, and it's this one right here. We know because it's the same building we attended when we were back nearly seven years later and living on the opposite side of town. Ah, the joys of retrospective blogging.

Another one of those joys goes with this photo. At the time, it was a picture of 1) Mom's visiting teaching companion and a general good friend and neighbor and 2) a family that Grandmother and Grandfather had potential local ties to. Now, in 2014, it's also a picture of Mercedes M. Yardley, author.

After church, Grandfather got a picture of the rest of us on the elevator. That's right folks, we lived in a building with an elevator once upon a time. *sigh* Those were the days . . .

It was time to get back to those presents . . .

Here's Amanda with Grandmother, working on something Christmasy.

Mom thinks the picture of Amanda looks an awful lot like this picture of baby Mom on Grandma Joan's lap at her first Christmas. What do you think?

Speaking of Mom, in the midst of the presents, there may or may not have been some My Little Ponies, which may or may not have been more for Mom, long time pony fan, than for Amanda. *cough*

Let's see, where were we . . . oh yes, Amanda's first Christmas. She very much enjoyed the quacking duck puppet shown by Mom, as did other Muffins in years to come. She definitely approved of Christmas. Here's the Christmas card photo we took of her that year:

(Don't feel bad if you don't remember seeing it before, considering that we did a better job taking the picture than sending it.)