Christmas with my parents

The home my parents live at invited family members to come for a supper last week.

Carolers showed up and my Dad enjoyed singing with them so much!

Then the home had a Christmas Extravaganza on the 23rd!

Families and friends were invited to a Christmas party.

 

 Dobson, the resident therapy dog.

 My Dad played the part of Santa for many, many years.    There are just some things he can't do anymore. The new Santa looks a little feminine?  She sounds it too.  When she was reading the story, her voice would change from a deep "Ho ho ho" to a higher pitch.  It was pretty funny!

Mom took us to the Bread Basket for lunch.

 

On Christmas Day, our kids were all busy.  Mindy was at work, Jill's family was having other people over and our son's family won't be here until after the new year.  So the folks and us decided to have a quiet Christmas dinner together.  A sweet time.

 Afterwards we drove Mom and Dad around town looking at Christmas lights for about an hour.

This home belongs to our friends.  Way to go Pankratz's!!

We were passing my Dad's cousin's house and Mom told us that this cousin was experiencing memory loss. Then she said "Quite often memory loss is....now what was I going to say?"  

Hope your Christmas has been a delightful one!  We look forward to celebrating more when our son arrives the first week of January, as others are tearing down their decorations.  It is wonderful that He is Emmanuel, God with us, even when the holiday is over.  He is our Light, ever present in this dark world.  My heart is filled with joy that He came to this world.  What love!!

Merry Christmas!

For a child is born to us, a Son is given to us.  The government will rest on His shoulders.  And He will be called:  Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  Isaiah 9:6

I love this verse!  He is our Counselor!  What a privilege to come to Him when our hearts are broken, in adversity, when we struggle to make sense of things.  He is the One who speaks Peace to us.  He has the entire universe on His shoulders and we can lay on Him our worries and cares.  He is Mighty to Save!  Christ came to this earth to rescue us!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

from our family to yours!

Extended family Christmas party

On Saturday night it snowed quite a bit and was quite icy in the morning. Several churches cancelled services.  Ours didn't.  When we got to church and I got out of our pickup in the parking lot, my feet gave out from under me.  Luckily I was holding on to the door or I would have fallen on my bottom!

We wondered whether we would be having our family Christmas party.  It takes us an hour to get to Pretty Prairie and Reuben's family (from Hutch) and Julie's family (from Little River) also need to travel.  It was decided to give it a try.  The roads to Hutch were actually clear by the afternoon.  The ones from Hutch to Pretty Prairie were quite snow-packed and icy.  We drove slower than normal and did just fine.  Not everyone was able to come and they were missed.

GYM
We rented out the grade school gym and had a blast.

 

 

 
 

 Playing Knock-Out.

Senior Center
The senior center is right beside the school and we also rent that out.  This is where we eat and have our gift exchange.  We've done this for several years.

 It was Susie's 18th birthday.

 Always lots of food!!

Followed by the gift giving!

All the aunties go together to put together gift baskets for the grand kids.

Jill's family had illness and Josh's family won't arrive until New Year's so they will receive their gift bags later.

The newlyweds came from Iowa

After the children opened their gifts, the adults had their gift exchange.  All the guys bring a "guy gift" and all the ladies bring gifts for the "girls" to exchange.

Guys went first.  They drew numbers and #1 picked his gift.  After he opens it, #2 would either choose to pick a gift or steal #1's gift.  And on it goes.  At the end #1 gets to either keep what he has or trade.  Being #1 is actually a good thing!

Al's first gift was a fryer that Russell stole.

Al's 2nd gift.

Also stolen.  This was what he ended up with.

 Al is making a face - not because of the gift but because I made him pose once more.  The guys did a LOT of stealing!

 One daddy had his gift taken by his son.

 The ladies seemed to like their gifts and there was not too much stealing that went on.

Happy birthday to Susie!!

The brothers

 and their sister

After the party ended, we had to go down main street for old time's sake.

 No stop light in this small town of 600.

It was real foggy as we drove home after 10.  Some spots were hard to see in front of us.  But we made it safely home.  It is always good to be with family!