A Christmas surprise....

...and the girls who pulled it off!

I was expecting my friend, Kim, to come over last night for a visit and hotdogs over the fireplace. I was completely surprised when four friends showed up, bearing food gifts, and sang Christmas Carols to Bruce and I and then we all had hotdogs over the fire!

I didn't have the where with all to snap some photos so I went into the archive and pulled them out.

Eva, a hardworking wife and mother of three girls, as if she didn't have enough to do she came a year ago and helped my sister clean and winterize the backyard pond. The dogs were also exhausted watching all that work.

When Lisa, another hardworking farm wife with an outside job, mother of two and proud grandmother of Izabelle, found out Rosanne and Eva were here, she donned her water boots and gloves and came to help. Lisa was the one who hatched the idea.

Becky, after a few glasses of wine - need I say any thing else?

Lastly, Kim, the go-between, she comes over quite often to have hotdogs over the fire so I didn't suspect a thing.  Here she is, last summer, helping me rebuild the pond, she is shoveling some dirt with a hen nearby helping.

We sat in the kitchen, eating hotdogs, chips and drinking wine, since I'm off painkillers, it is permissible. Then the fire drove us out and into the living room where Bruce had been peacefully watching Monday Night Football. They all started talking about the 'Voice' which we never watch but Bruce turned it over, being the good host that he was. (He was probably counting down until they left so he could go back to his football.)

We all had a lot to talk about, jumped from topic to topic like jumping beans but all too soon, the party had to break up and the girls left. It was then I looked around at my undecorated and messy house and thought, that is when you know who your true friends are, I never gave it a thought while they were here.

I wish you all Christmas surprises when you are least expecting them.