We love to travel and see all of our family during the holidays and we will look forward to doing that again next year but this year we stayed home and did it a little differently.
This was a year of new traditions and lots of "firsts" for our family. And it was wonderful.
- It was the first year we took our girls Christmas caroling with the other kids from our church.
- Our first year to stay home and not travel at all during Christmas break....which made the vacation time seem much longer. We stayed up late and slept in each morning. Awesome!
- Our first year with mom living with us! Doubly Awesome!
- We started the tradition of driving around looking at Christmas lights together (in our comfey jammmies and robes no less.....good thing it was dark and we didn't get out of the car, lol)
- We went to a Candle Light Christmas Eve service at our own church for the first time ever! And I must say it was a beautiful service with wonderful music and sermon and I loved the special message our children's minister shared with all the kids gathered around at the front of the church. The kids especially loved the Hot Chocolate bar they set up in the foyer.
- We baked a birthday cake for Jesus.
- We did a lot of baking....especially cookies! YUM!
- We cooked a big Christmas day dinner, and played with all our new "toys".
I think Tucker and Gunnar enjoyed opening their presents as much as the kids did. They were busy with their new bones all day long.
I cannot even tell you how much I love that grandma got right down on the floor with the girls and started building a fort out of Lincoln Logs.
And the whole family has had a blast with the Wii and all the games that we got the girls. (A sincere and great big thanks so much for the blessings bestowed upon us by some of Jeremy's coaching friends) ***Jeremy and I even made a little date out of playing Wii games after everyone else went to bed one night. Unfortunately, it's not only real sports he schools me in; he is also better than me at virtual sports, ugh!
The Lord has filled our home with joy and an expanded family unit that enriches our days more than I knew possible. We had toyed with the idea many times of possibly combining households and having mom live with us and it finally happened this year just before Thanksgiving. Mom's house is on the market and as soon as it sells we will do the same with ours and begin the search for a home that we can all grow in together. I hate that the process was speeded up by mom having an unexpected fall resulting in a concussion and brief stay in the hospital (that sucked).....but I am grateful that she recovered so well without any lasting effects. Not even any dizzy spells anymore! Praise God! And well, I am happy that she went ahead and moved in with us right away because it has been so great to have her share life with us each day. (and Jeremy would joke that I love the fact that she always beats me to the dishes, helps with laundry, and is a fantastic cook......I wouldn't argue with him at all, but I would say it's definitely more than that. She is a treasure and we love her so much)
Mom took all of us kids and our families out for a special dinner and then we had a party back at our house. Todd & Michele and Shayna along with Michele's sister and her husband and two kids, Tim and Monika, Jodi & Chris and Katelyn and Isabel, and us.
These kids had fun together. I tried to get a picture of all of them and this is the only one where they were all looking, lol. And you can see little Isabel is ready to launch herself from the couch to the ottoman. Shayna didn't want to smile until I told her we could open presents if she smiled for the camera, ha ha....whatever works right! :)
Then trying to get a pic of the guys was just as silly because they didn't want to all look at me or be serious at all. They are so rotten! Ha!
Tony, Tim, Todd, Chris, Jeremy
The ladies did a better job of it. ;-)
Michele, Jodi, Monika, Jackie, Carlene, Marjorie
We proceeded to have our annual White Elephant gift exhange, where there is always a bit of good natured "stealing" of presents. Then we played games until late into the night. Which the girls won, of course!
No comments:
Post a Comment