{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real}~ December 20, 2015

So sorry to have disappeared last week!  A relative, for whom Dave and I are the sole caregivers, went to the hospital with pneumonia.  Thanks to modern medicine and God's mercy, the illness was quickly subdued and all is well again.

{Pretty}

In this post, I showed you the conservatory we had painted in October, but I haven't yet showed you the completed "gallery" of paintings by Dave's grandmother, Dorothea Storey Kelsey.  Besides three in the living room, we gathered all her paintings in our possession into this one space, and I love it.

The wall color has more creamy yellow undertones than shows
in this photo.  It looks great with all the wood frames.

 The cellist in the middle is Dave's father, Carleton Spotts, who was the cello professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia for 34 years.  The three portraits on the right are of Dorothea, her husband Luman, and their daughter (Dave's mother) Sylvia.  The portrait over the organ is also of Luman.  I am very pleased with how this turned out and I am finally beginning to like this room. :)

{Happy}

We had a gathering at our house for friends this past Friday.  Yes, it was a Christmas party, but in a university town, if you want to have a Christmas party, you have to do it before everyone scatters for Christmas break, even if it means having it in Advent.  Last year we had not yet gotten to know anyone well enough to even have a party, so we are happy that we've built more connections and made more friends in the intervening year.  A true blessing.

 

{Funny}

Spotted on a recent Christmas shopping excursion:

But they're plastic?????????

{Real}

After many weeks of atypical dry weather, the rains finally came . . . and came . . . and came some more.  The pond level has been higher only once in my memory.  The water apparently got high enough to dislodge a volleyball that has been floating randomly around the pond for over a year.  How and when it got there we know not, but there it floats.  One day recently it almost got near enough to the shore to be fished out. Almost. Alas.

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