The Fezziwig Christmas Party 2014

February 26th: to my delight, this morning I awoke to gently falling snow!

 Although I love spring, I'm happy to have snow again, especially 

since I really miss Christmasy-ness. :)

Thus said, I'm going to publish this Christmas party post for your enjoyment! :) 

Who knows? next week may be spring and I 

don't think this would be as well received as right now....

To our delight, some Dear friends of ours were able to host a wonderful Christmas party, affectionately known as the 'Fezziwig Christmas party'. It was so neat to see all our friend's plans come to fruition! Quite impressive. I have thousands of ideas which...stay such for decades.

 “But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round-apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that-as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!”- nephew Fred,The Christmas Carol 

The cheese ball I made for the party

Nikola brought a Christmas pudding (a sine qua non of such a party!)

Lots of candlelight and twinkle lights! Lovely atmosphere

Nikola and Jessie talking with Shannon

The S. sisters!

Talking

Sam looks like a typical party-goer: beer in hand...jk. 

My camera was being ornery so I decided to make the best of it!

Katia (one of) the bookworm(s) in the family!

We sang favorite Christmas hymns together!

And (of course) danced some favorite dances! 

We had live music and a great caller, wooden floorboards to dance on...it was great! :) 

We did 

Bare Necessities

Hull's Victory

Jack's Maggot

Duke of Kent's Waltz

...and a couple more

The plaid blur=Peter. Don't worry, he apologized and lived to see another day.

An original Beyond the Mask barrel! ;)

I have to wonder what the owners of the this restaurant (where this rented room was located) thought when the Burns lugged that in!

Friends

Sisters...at our finest ;P 

You have to love the enthusiastic flash! 

The background is unusually nice though. 

The evening ended all too soon and since I can't think of anything extremely wise or witty to say so shall this post! ;)

Next: more Christmasy memories!
(December can be a very memory-full month, don't you think? 

January and February are generally more calm. )

Christmasy things 2014 :)

Now that it has finally snowed here in Missouri (and we happen to be playing Christmas music at this very moment),

I think it is high time I publish these ''Christmasy'' pictures! :) 

I miss Christmas time! I love the coziness and music and firelight....

Our Mum got a Groupon deal for the youngest girls to go to the Zoo for the lights! 

Judging by their expressions, it was indeed a special treat for them! :) So glad they got to do that!

They said there was the Christmas station playing all over the Zoo, which added to the fun atmosphere!

This picture gives me a ''Narnia'' feel!

Our Dad and Jessica were the little girls' escorts that night. 

The generous, in-the-moment people that they are, they gave no second thought to treating Katia to a magical carousel ride! 

I'm glad they did it. :) 

We need more people like that in the world. :)

Earlier, our family went on our annual Christmas window shopping trip to old St. Charles!

I love this time of mingling with other happy shoppers, smelling the holiday smells, looking at all the twinkling lights, and being overwhelmed by the warmth and color in the crowded shops!

The Flower Petaler...

Over 12 rooms like this!

Husbands, be warned. 

This is the shop.

That wives enter.

And shop 'til they drop.

(copyright Mazzou 2015)

   It would have been humorous to have taken videos of all the patient husbands standing outside the crowded, suspiciously Victorian-looking gift shops (such as the Flower Petaler), awaiting their wives return to earth. 

Each man gave a sympathetic look to each husband who was added to the group. 

what one does when one is waiting for one's mother to choose hand cream for one's grandmother

feeling young again...taking pictures of myself because it was too dangerous to do anything else in such overpopulated shops...

''overwhelmed by Christmas'' (as if anyone could be!) selfie, followed by

a juvenile ''hungry wolf'' (or more innocently, ''forgot I had braces'') selfie

(hate those...I must practice at least by taking some cues from my darling wee sister Laura-Lise!)

Spotting interesting items in the shops

Example of bad sales logistics: displaying this questionable item outside your shop!

I wanted to take a video of the dozens of passersby who queried ''Weeds''?...

Just a snapshot of a Christmas tree in my room. 

(to be utterly truthful, this isn't from this year but it's close. Same Christmas tree-look and same star light. ;) )

In December, we also went to our friends the Burnses to complete a delightful annual tradition: that of making dozens of cookies to last us through the holidays! ;)

This time was just as lovely as usual...only all my pictures got deleted. So. We won't dwell on that too long.

On Christmas Eve, we watched The Book Thief for the first time!

We absolutely loved it, and have all announced it a family favorite! 

Love it!

                                       

I found it randomly when searching for good haircut ideas for my French-Canadian looking sister Elodie...long story short, I came across this (French-Canadian) actress Sophie Nelisse and when I saw that she was in a World War II movie...I had to find out more! :) 

You should watch it!

Just don't read the book. Please. Please. Please.

December dance with friends

Having just attended another fun dance with friends, 

I was reminded to publish this post from the December dance!

December 12th was another dance with friends...this one's purpose was particularly to practice for the upcoming New Years' ball.

Whether we needed practice or not, we made sure to attend this dance and had a great time!

This was an especially good dance; lots of friends and a great selection of dances!

Some action here :) 

Sweet!

Another sweetie

Zoe

:) Some pictures have interesting action going on!

Two videos from Andrew at Stately Steps give a glimpse into 

the night of dancing

The Scottish! And I got to dance this time! :) So fun!

            After dancing, speed volleyball is indulged in by those awake enough to be of any use to a team. There were so many volleyball players this time!

That's my Sam!

We ladies watched and discussed babies. :) 

'' indeed, my dears...''

I have a sinking feeling that this is how I generally look while conversing...

this time we were sharing birth stories 

(because you know, we are so qualified in that area ;) )

Katia and co.

I found the following pictures on my camera and thought them quite amusing. What a great little character this fellow is!