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| Michele & Jesse under the Chrismon Tree |
It was a joy.
What a delight to look up and see Jesse, Abi and Zelenka sitting close to the front, smiling. The Chrismons on the tree represent Christ, all in white and gold, with little white lights. The children made the Chrismons in Sunday school.
In the afternoon we went to see Hoverhome, a mansion built early in the 1900's and donated to the St. Vrain Historical Society. The family is gone and the home is now on busy Hover Street in Longmont; 100 years ago it looked out on 160 acres of farmland. The family was innovative, installing electricity and indoor plumbing, as well as speaking tubes that connected the bedrooms. Each downstairs room had a door to the outside. A wood burning stove had a new-fangled metal drawer that provided hot water, and a back stairway leads up to the cook's room and bath. 
A separate room on the first floor was reserved for the seamstress who lived in for six weeks twice a year to make the elaborate clothing of the day for the women of the family. In that room the bed pivoted into a closet to give the seamstress room to work.
Every room had a fireplace--no central heating then. Every room had closets, an extravagance only the wealthy indulged, as closets were taxed as additional rooms.
The holiday theme was "Let Heaven and Nature Sing," and the decorations were as gorgeous as the mansion itself. Each room had its own mini-theme and hosted at least one Christmas tree with unique decorations. I'd never seen peacock feathers on a Christmas tree before, or full-sized violins.
Or a tree full of butterflies.
Or a bathtub filled with pine cones.