Christmas Week

We made it through Christmas week with flying colors! The boys and I had an amazing Christmas!

As you can see, they are all smiles in their new Christmas pajamas (every year "Santa", a.k.a. Grandma, buys every person in the entire family a new pair of pj's that are opened on Christmas Eve).

Gary, Khonda, Makenna, Brock, Joelle & Dawson were able to come stay with us for Christmas. I had all four boys in Drew's room, the girls in Nick's room, and G&K in the office. It was cozy and lots of fun. My boys were in heaven having all of their cousins here to play with.

The only thing hard on all of us was missing Deb and Bren and their families. That was the one big hole in Christmas this year.

Marilyn, who was "adopted" by our family, joined us for all of the Christmas festivities as well. My mom calls her her best friend. I'm glad they have each other!

My dad, of course, was never without his grin... sometimes mischievious (something Nick inherited!), sometimes just there because he was happy to have his family around him.

Don, who was "adopted" into our family long, long ago on Maui, is now living with my parents temporarily and so was of course included in all of our Christmas activities. It was like deja vu from high school having him here.

And look, even Grandma has a smile on her face. The two of them were funny though. We open gifts one person, one present at a time. Neither of them could wait their turn and so they both just tore into their presents at once. They were worse than kids!

Michael was also here for all of our Christmas festivities and that made it even more special for me. The boys and I also joined his family's Christmas fesitivities on Christmas Eve Day. We love his family and felt very special being included.

Every year our family has a birthday cake for Jesus and all of the grandkids get to blow out the candles. This year Khonda and Makenna made the cake. We all sang Happy Birthday and then the kids all blew.

On Christmas Eve the kids also left out milk & cookies for Santa, along with a note. Santa, of course, loved the cookies and left a reply for them that they found in the morning.

It was an awesome Christmas for all of us.

The boys are with Matt all this week and it is a little strange having an empty house. But I am using the time to clean and to write. I am also anticipating two or three different calls for job interviews. AND I was contacted by an engaged couple who want me to coordinate their wedding this summer!! We are setting up a time to meet and sign contracts this week. Woo hoo!

Michael and I were able to celebrate the New Year together. After stuffing ourselves with a big roast dinner, we did some visits back and forth between my parents' house and his parents' best friends' house where there was a party. Then he and I sat and made lists of our own "Life Goals", things we want to do and accomplish before we die. And we prayed together yesterday to start our new year.

God is good. So, so good.