Family togetherness

Here are some memories of family togetherness....

                        We went downtown for coffee and shopping local.  

Rec center

At home

This was a noisy game; and maybe a little intense at times?

We introduced them to our game of Pit, a game we got when we were first married.  I had my mother's set also and I grew up playing this a lot!  It also is a noisy game!   "Two, two, two!!  Three, three, three?!"  Anyone remember this?

Someone left a package at the door for Sophia!  (supposedly FedEx, but really Josh's family) It happened to be from "Graber University" inviting Sophia to come to "their" university (their home) in Arkansas next year.  They made a super imaginative and creative pamphlet and everything!

The family helped make different meals, which helped out a lot.  I'm not used to 16 people 3 meals a day for 5 days!  They came up with meal plans and I purchased the ingredients.  The kids took turns fixing the meals also.

Prayer time

Reggie was smelling the meat!

We had a song night, requested my Nana.  When you have musical kids that's what parents enjoy!:

The little girls loved singing "Jesus Loves Me".  They belted it out.  When Kaia said "I love Jesus", Al and I had a hard time not not crying for joy.

Josh sang a song he wrote about heaven.  We got choked up.

Adam and Sophia also had a song, but I missed getting a photo.  Nana would like the whole shabang - with cello, more duets and all that!  God has gifted almost all of them musically.  I'm not, but I enjoy listening!

 - - - - - 

The Colorado kids needed to go back earlier than the others.  Jason tried out Al's new toy - a miniature air compressor that you can keep in the car when you go on trips.

Good-bye Colorado kids!  We'll miss you!!

While they headed back on I-70, the rest of us went to the Dutch Kitchen west of Hutch for good old German Mennonite food!

They ran out of peanut butter chocolate pie for dessert but this sweet waitress said she would simply make another one just for us (4 of them wanted that) and it didn't take her long at all!

That evening, some played hide-n-seek in the neighborhood. A couple of them hid in the tops of trees!  Adam hid at the playground but someone called the cops about suspicious behaviour!  Oh dear.  Luckily the cop believed his story that he was playing a game.

Of course we had to play Murder in the Dark.  That's a must.  Here is Al, murdered in the shower.

We asked the kids this year if they would help us un-do our Christmas decorations. It was such a help!!  They insisted we kiss under the mistletoe!

Papa keeping  boys in line.

The last night they were here, most of the family went to the movies.  Jill, Claire and we went to Braums and had a good time visiting with friends!

Early the last day....Good-bye, Wisconsin family!

Good-bye Arkansas family!

We slept a lot after everyone left.  Family togetherness is WONDERFUL but can be a little exhausting for us "elderly" people.  But how we loved it!  We know that we are blessed.

"Behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity."                                    Psalm 133:1

There was a song from that verse we used to sing in rounds when we were in high school I think.  I found many various tunes to it but here is the one we used to sing (in English)  Challenge for next year - our family should learn this dance!  Maybe in Hebrew too?

How we do the gifting

When it comes to gift giving, we give each of our kids and grandkids gifts of a specific amount that we budget.  Some get only had 1 gift because the item costs the entire amount.  But others get 3 or 4 since their gifts aren't as costly.  

Someone gave me the idea to give each person just one gift box.  Some with just the one gift inside, others would have more, but we still put them all in one box.  

Last summer when the kids were here for our anniversary, we had a fun evening when we painted eachother's faces.

I kept these paintings and displayed them for awhile on the stairwell.

I decided put them on each person's gift this Christmas.

Nehemiah was not able to come last summer to get his face painted on canvas, so I asked for the kids' help to do that so he'd have his face on his present too.  Several pitched in.  Sophie began with it.

Sophie got out the old paint apron that they used to wear when they were little and did painting at Nana's house.  I found this old picture from 2006 of Hannah wearing it!

Eli added some touches to the painting.

As did Hannah.

Gift opening began.

Notice the tie Jason received?  The kids took things that were Al's from his study and closet then wrapped them up and gave them as gifts. 

                 "Hey, I have a shirt similiar to that."

It didn't take long for Al to figure it out.

Eli was taking apart his remote control truck, just to see how it was put together.  He is an engineer at heart.

The cousins had a gift exchange and the adult kids had their own gift exchange where they could steal from each other.  Pretty fun.

Maybe the best present that was enjoyed was nailpolish for the girls.

Everyone's nails were done by Tenley's Salon.

Everyone had BEAUTIFUL nails!