The best of the rest ...

I want to show you an assortment of pictures from the last full day we were all together ~ Wednesday, December 30. Emily and Jeremiah spent a lot of the day with us because they knew it would be quite awhile before we would get to see them again. We really enjoyed their visit.



Our youngest grandson was the center of attention for most of us ... he is just so beautiful.
I was glad to see Olivia really enthused about reading her novel, "The Southern Storm." It's in a whole series of books she has been reading. She could hardly put it down! I've always said that reading was one of the greatest joys in life.

We took SO many photos of this beautiful boy ...
Olivia adored him too!


Jeremiah has a very easy-going personality. He is quick to laugh and he really loves to socialize. We just loved spending time with him.

An afternoon Winter walk with Olivia: While the little kids were napping, I grabbed Olivia for a nice walk ... in our amazing winter wonderland. I took her to my favorite place within walking distance!

Our destination was Mr. Lyle's place. I wanted to introduce Olivia to Dusty and Tuffy and let her feed them some carrots. Olivia loves horses as much as I do!
I love these pictures of Olivia ... isn't she a beautiful girl?


We fed an entire bag of carrots to Dusty. Poor Tuffy must not have felt well, because he stayed his distance ... perhaps he sensed how sick I had been and didn't want to be anywhere near me!

Later in the evening, all of us were treated to dinner over at Red Lobster ~ my very favorite restaurant. Emily and Jeremiah joined us too! I didn't take many pictures at the restaurant that turned out very well.
While we were waiting for our food to arrive, I took a little walk with Jackson and Karis to the front of the restaurant to look at the tank of lobsters. One of the waiters took one out and let us touch it. Jackson very very lightly touched its tail ... but Karis would not have anything to do with touching a lobster!
After we got home and tucked the little kiddos into bed, us big folk watched one of my favorite films. If you have never seen this adaptation of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, you should! It is an amazing, sobering, challenging, convicting piece of historical fiction ... I loved sharing this story with our family!
Sabrina had packed most of everything up before bedtime the night before, so when morning came, we enjoyed breakfast together and then loaded up their van ...



... and watched them drive away ... leaving us with lots of nice memories of their Christmas visit. Olivia left us a "thank-you" message in the snow out front that Grandpa Jones tried to photograph, but didn't have the right angle. But the letter Olivia left me on my computer desk was beautifully written and is something I will always regard as a very special treasure.