Christmas 2009

For the first time we went to cut down a Christmas tree as a family. We loaded everyone into the van and barely made it to the Christmas tree farm before dark. It's right outside of town, but we were waiting until after nap time to leave and of course Abby & Zach took long naps that day. Anyway, we got all the equipment and found a great tree. We took some photos and ended up using one as our Christmas card picture for the year. I was glad about that because I was kind of dreading trying to get all the kids looking decent in a picture at the same time. The boys thought it was really fun to watch Daddy cut down the tree. Of course they wanted to decorate it the minute we got home, but it was too late so we waited until the next day.

Our Church had its Christmas celebration on Dec. 13. We do it early before all the students leave town since they are such a big part of our congregation. The kids all got dressed up for it, which is fun to do once in a while. Here's a pic of Daddy & Abby. I think she had been crying because she had fallen down.

We love having a fire place, especially at Christmas time, and I love seeing all the stockings hung on it. On Christmas day Grandma & Grandpa came over and we had a breakfast birthday cake for Jesus. The kids really seem to enjoy singing and blowing out the candles. We opened presents and then later in the day Joe's brother and his family came over.

On the 26th, we went to Gramby & Pa's house in Temple. Just about all of Joe's siblings and many of their kiddos were there. It was good to see everyone and Gramby was really glad to have everyone together. She and Pa have been living in Gonzalez, LA for a year for Pa's work and they hope to move back to Temple in the spring. Here is a pic of Gramby & Zach and one of Gramby, Joe, Dan, Wendi & Jami.

We received a ginger bread house kit as a Christmas gift. I confess I was not particularly looking forward to putting it together because I thought it would make a huge mess and probably not work very well. I was surprised, however, at how easy it was and how well it held together. Of course the kids enjoyed the candy and it was a blessing to see their creativity coming out! Maybe we'll even do it again next year.