New Year's Day Family Gathering

Hans and his family flew into Minneapolis Sunday and today they and many from my family celebrated the New Year by gathering at the Barn where I work. It was suggested I keep the menu simple this year: pizza, pop, and Christmas cookies. That ended up being a very good idea!

I wish I would have taken more photos — photos that included everyone present, but when I downloaded them moments ago, I see I missed several people. Those who were there are Hans, Rachel, Josiah, Annika, William; Peder, Sarah, Aurelia, Felix, and Leo; Jerry, Janet, Keith, Deborah, and Annika; Steve; Pete and Jan (Rachel's parents); my dear friend, Nancy, and I.

Here are some photos of today's activities.

Josiah, who lives in a warmer climate, was thrilled to go outside in the snow and excitedly returned with a couple of icicles he found attached to a tree. I thought that was pretty fun!

Annika and Aurelia

My friend, Nancy, brought some magical 3-D glasses for the kids. William loved looking at the lights on the trees with the glasses that created a star around each light. After removing them, he saw the lights were simply lights. He had a lot of fun with these.

It was decided William and I looked better with mustaches! 

Nancy helped with setting up the food.

Rachel located a guitar in the barn and gave it to Josiah to play a tune. It was a bigger instrument from what he has at home, and he said he didn't have any tunes memorized. Regardless, Annika started singing "We all live in a Yellow Submarine," and many of us joined it. I loved it!

Hans, Rachel, William, Josiah, and Annika (Annika was crying because Josiah pulled her hat off just before I took the picture. In the next photo I took of them, Rachel had her eyes closed and Josiah was standing sideways.). Next time we do "family photos" we need to do them at the beginning of the event — not after everyone is very tired.

Sarah, Felix, Leo, Peder and Leo. Again, in this photo, Felix is very tired and rubbing his eyes. In the other photo I took, Leo is looking down and Sarah is facing the wall. Drat, I wish we would have taken the photos earlier in the day.

Okay, here is the other photo of Peder's family. In this photo, Felix looks very happy.

As you can see, Annika is now happy that she is wearing her hat. If I were Sarah, I could have photo-shopped the two photos to take the better image of one and clone it into the other. Oh, well.

It was really nice being together and I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. I missed having Heidi and her family with us, and am hoping it will work out someday soon when we can all be together again. Happy New Year!