Sweet times

One highlight of this Christmas season was having my brother Dave come visit.

He brought some bread that he had made.  Sooooo delicious!  It did not last long!

Dave is five years older than me.  Doug, who passed away several years ago, is 2 years older than I am.

The only year we went to school together was when I was in 1st grade.  Here we are getting ready to board the train to go to Miyakonojo, 3 hours away where our school and dormitory were.  

Beyond that we were in different schools and even different cities and countries!

You've heard it say "It's a small world."  As Dave was talking with our son-in-law, Jason mentioned that his folks have a summer house at Council Grove Lake.  Dave said his neighbors also have a house there.  A few texts revealed that these couples know each other well and serve on a board together!

I took the teen girls with me shopping one day

and a stop for coffee at Norms for good coffee.

We'd been having having trouble with our Ring ever since I'd gotten a new phone.  To the rescue - our son Josh!

We appreciated all the help the kids were to us!

Staci and I went for a walk with Reggie.

Josh and Staci had to leave early to attend her aunt's funeral.  

But they left their kids behind so they could have more cousin time.  

(I found these pictures on my phone)

Here are a few photos of these two who are the same age.

Our plan is to take each of our grandchildren on some sort of trip to help them grow closer to God.  3 down, 4 to go. They wanted to go together so we took them to Romania with us this past May.

They've been taking photos together for many years!

It was soon time for all of the family to leave, except for Mindy and her children.  Jason was going on a trip to Mexico and so she and the babies would spend a few extra days with us.  Yay!

Doing high-fives with the cousins that last night.

Tenley woke up to a note on the fridge from her cousin, Claire, who had left early in the morning to return to Wisconsin.