THANK YOU FOR THE TREATS...

We opened gifts from extended family gradually throughout the week of Christmas. We do one each evening and it serves several purposes. The main one is that the kids are able to enjoy the gifts individually and have a better grasp of who gave it to them. It gets pretty jumbled up when they're all opened on Christmas morning. The first gift was from Aunt Joy. They each got a pretty green envelope decorated with Christmas stickers and labeled with their name.

(It took us so long to get a picture with everyone looking at the camera that Cecily already had hers open.)

She got them all a gift certificate to go out to eat at McDonalds. That will be a fun treat for them. We don't do it much. THANK YOU, JOY!!!


Next was annual ornaments from Grammy and Papa. This year she found these cute boxes to store them in.

The kids really liked the boxes. :)

Millie got a pretty pink ball.

Cecily got...

...the cutest, chubby, red bird! We let her taste it before we removed it from harm and hung it on the tree.

Calvin's candy cane ball.

Benny's donut ball.

William's beaded ball.

Sam's garland ball. We love them all AND the boxes to store them in! THANK YOU GRAMMY and PAPA!

The third night we opened the gifts from my Grandma Bethel and Grandpa Larry (my dad's parents). Grandma made these adorable, decorated stockings.

This is not the greatest picture, but I included it so Grandma could see Cecily opening hers too.

Sam's stocking.

Oooooo...money!

Millie has a good idea of what money is used for.

These little homemade cards were really SO cute! Thank you for the thought and energy that went into that, Grandma. We LOVED them! The kids love to get money to save in their bank accounts. They keep a running tally of their savings and are always looking for ways to add to it. THANK YOU!!!

I just thought it was kind of funny watching Cecily climb up Peter to get onto the couch. She's not tall enough to climb directly onto it.

The fourth night, the night before Christmas Eve, we opened our gift from Aunt JoAnn. She sent us a DVD set for the whole family, the third season of the Andy Griffith Show. Cecily was especially wrestless to mess with the gifts under the tree so we decided to go ahead and open some little gifts that my mom had sent. I really like the above picture because you can see a rare expression that shows how happy she was to get her hands on that little package.

Amelia's gift was a jump rope. The boys each got a little game, TicTacToe, Solitaire, etc.

Cece's gift was a hat! She also got some really nice hair clips. That was just perfect for that evening. Thank you, GRAMMY and PAPA. And thank you AUNT JOANN for the DVD's. Lots of treats for us!

WEDDING #1

In case I didn't mention it, Peter officiated two weddings this month. The first one was the Saturday before Christmas and the second one was the Saturday after Christmas. The first wedding was to unite Miss Kellen McNutt with Mr. Evan Falkenstine. They've been coming over for dinner every Monday night before doing marriage counseling for a couple of months. It has been so fun to get to know them this way.

The wedding was very memorable in the sense that plans all adjusted due to a sudden 9 inch snowfall the morning of the wedding. The wedding started late and I think about 1/2 of the expected guests actually came. But weddings really must go on and the pastor really must find a way to get there! There were guests visiting from all over the United States and there was certainly no postponing things. I, myself, finally scurried in with all of the kiddos... ...just in time to hear Peter pronounce them man and wife and watch them walk down the aisle together. So I missed pretty much all of the wedding ceremony! I had considered not going as I watched the snow accumulate throughout the morning. I resolved not to attempt it when Peter said, "But you're such a support to me." Alright. Come what may, I'd get there. :) And I did. But VERY late indeed!
The pastor is glad and happy to have married our friends, Evan and Kellen. And happy to see that his own family made it there safely.

Amelia with her friend, Kellen. She really, really likes Kellen.

The boys with Evan.

My family at the reception, minus one.

There she is. You didn't think she'd be sitting down, did you?

Making herself at home and getting to know people.

Asking for food.

Collecting some good things from these lovely trays.

My picture doesn't do them justice, but these tables were very pretty.
They strung white lights under the tablecloths and it was a very nice effect.

Amelia and friend, Katrina.

Calvin has wheedled Kent into bouncing him on his knee. Millie is trying to join in as well.

Kent looks at Peter and asks: "What do you do once you have more kids than knees?"

Calvin with dad's boutonniere.

Waiting for dad to bring the car around to pick us up. It's striking how very white everything was with so much snow.

A cheesy grin.

We took the slow journey home and dropped off our car that doesn't have 4-wheel drive, then headed back to the church (in the one that does) for a traditional Austrian dinner of Schnitzel (sp?) that the bride and groom had fixed. They have both been exchange students to Austria.

And then, of course, we danced. (John and Sarah Moss at the front and Tim and Shaela are the second couple).

Dip and dive. Joyous event. Celebrated wholeheartedly in spite of the snow!

MISCELLANEOUS

Some family pictures in front of the tree.



Cecily was a lot less than cooperative. :)

A very sick little Millie. She spent a day in this position without much movement and no eating. She, however, only had a 24 hour flu of some kind and was better the next day. My first clue to her recovery was "Mommy, I very like pizza!" when the rest of us were heating up some pizza for lunch. I guess she's alright if she's wanting some pizza. :)

A sweet older brother (Benny) had compassion and made her a colorful necklace to cheer her up. She actually did brighten a little. She appreciated the gentle token of love. :)

When I got the Christmas storybooks out of the box, there was much curling up by windows to enjoy snowfall and read the comfortable tales again after a year of storage.

The little roundnesses of everything on the youngest makes her
oh-so-kissable.

Candycane cookies that I made for the kids. I was trying out something new and they turned out to be very difficult, therefore I won't be making them again!

A Christmas family picture at church. (Sam was NOT feeling well.)

We hosted a Christmas Feast for the fellow saints from church. Peter got a few pictures of people as they came through the door. First is engaged couple, Tim Woody and Shaela Carpenter.

These are Shaela's parents, Rick and Shirley Carpenter.

This is the John and Sarah Moss family.

I was managing all of the food and was not free to take pictures. Peter took these few. The four eldest children from the Jones and Oldland families performed the job of servers/waiters for the evening. They did a marvelous job of it.

Some of the work going on in the kitchen.

Mingling going on below stairs.

More mingling and a glimpse of the tables.

Bill and Jocelyn Oldland with 1/3 of their children (not including the one inside). They are here participating in the caroling that we did after the feast.