Merry Christmas from the Kilchoers!

Elizabeth (elf), Nougat (reindeer) and Jacques (Santa Claus)

We took a series of photographs and chose the best one to include with our Holiday Greetings card. Above, for your viewing pleasure, we have presented another of the top contenders that didn’t make the final cut. You will notice that our cat Nougat was very happy to put on reindeer antlers for our Christmas photo.

For Christmas we visited Elizabeth’s parents at their beautiful home in Costa Mesa. It was a Southern California Christmas with sunshine and weather warm enough to jump into the pool if one were in the mood. Elizabeth’s parents prepared a delicious steak dinner for Christmas Eve (a present from relatives that was definitely appreciated and enjoyed!) We enjoyed the typical Schmitz Christmas morning with presents and “Secret Santas” and then off to the Kilchoër abode to prepare for Christmas dinner for six hungry holiday guests. (Margaret, Lawrence, Steven, Jacques, Elizabeth and Margaret’s friend Debbie.) The Kilchoërs provided the honey-baked ham and a salmon dish called coulibiac. Combined with the delicious food that the guests contributed it was quite a Christmas feast. Despite our efforts to share our leftovers with surprised guests and unsuspecting friends, we had enough food to feed the whole family, even the ones not in attendance, for days.

Mr. Schmitz, Mrs. Schmitz, Elizabeth, Steven
(Jacques was busy taking the picture)

Jacques and Elizabeth on New Year’s Eve 2000

The New Year starting off with a bang as Jacques and Liz posed by their Christmas tree on the way out to the New Year’s Eve dance party.