Back to real Life?

Well.  Christmas is over.  I wish these few days could go on indefinitely.  It was so lovely to have our oldest, Mandy and her husband Brad here along with our son and Jamie and his two children. His wife Crystal stayed home with strep throat.  Alex was in Japan, of course, but we talked to him on both Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.

Our church had a wonderful Christmas Morning service with the song service consisting of all Christmas carols.  Such a great reminder of why this day is celebrated.  Glory to God in the Highest and Peace to All Men on Earth!

We had a HUGE dinner of turkey and all the trimmings, ending with apple pie pumpkin pie, chocolate pie and pecan pie!  Our good friends Neal and Jenny came over to share pie with us in the evening.  That has become our tradition since moving to Spokane.  Our kids grew up together and loved sharing whatever had been given to them for Christmas.

A few pictures for you.  Remember---I am NOT a photographer.  I just snap the picture and run!

Here are the two cutest grandchildren in the world with the angel cookies grandma made for them.  They are so easily pleased at this age!

This is what we woke up to on Christmas Eve so they decided to help Grandpa shovel the driveway.  We didn't have three shovels, but they found brooms worked too!

Poor Jamie.  The first entire day he was here was spent updating our computer equipment.  That's what happens when you live so far away.  Things pile up and then he has lots to do, but luckily, he loves computer stuff.  Kind of like a "busman's holiday".

 Our beautiful daughter Mandy.  If you ever need a nurse in Portland, OR, she's the one to see!

 All three of our dogs!  Mandy's golden lab-Polly.  Jamie's black lab-Tucker.  And our little British Lab-Chloe.  They all love each other and are very well behaved.  The kids loved to play with them all and believe it or not, even with all the dogs and kids, nothing was broken!

 The entire family except Alex and Crystal.  Not bad, we even got the dogs in!

 The grandbabies with their Hawaiian necklaces we brought for them. Kyleigh loves her new "Old Navy" hoodie I gave her.  She even wore it to church over her pretty dress.  We got clothing in Hawaii too, but it will have to be a warmer day to model those!  Sundresses and short sets don't mix well with snow and 10F temperatures.

 These two kids absolutely love Mandy's husband," Uncle Brad".  He's a pretty fun uncle.  He even lets them look into his nose, eyes and throat with the flashlights that Santa put in their stockings!  Flashlights are the best gifts you can give little kids.  [They're eating the last two sugar cookies, I ran out just as everyone was leaving yesterday.  Perfect timing, none left for me.  :-)]

Thursday night is our Bible Study Christmas potluck and gift exchange and then the job of putting all the decorations away for another year.  I'm trying very hard not to sucumb to my usual post holiday let-down.  I had planned to go to the nursing home this morning for a visit, but woke up to 5 inches of snow.  My car gets around very well, but I hate being the target for others to slide into me if I don't HAVE to go out.  So today will be dedicated to washing mounds of sheets and towels from the weekend!  After I shovel the driveway out.  So I better get moving.  I would love to see some of your holiday pictures too.  I hope you enjoyed our family Christmas.  We're a pretty informal group.  We open gifts in our jammies and just like to be together.

See you soon.

Blessings,

Betsy