First family comes

The first of the kids came the day after Christmas!  Mindy, Jason, Tenley and Kaia.

Earlier that day I ran to the grocery store to load up!  The kids had given me ingredients for the meals they would help me with.  The grocery cart was full!  I am not used to fixing 3 large meals a day for 16 people!  Dillons had great digital coupons and I was able to save a bundle!

After putting all the groceries away, Al and I took a nap.  And then Mindy's family arrived!

After they unpacked, we took a walk.  It was 70𝆩!  Mild for December.

The girls wanted rides going home.

The next morning, Mindy and Tenley helped make breakfast.

There was some disobedience on the part of the girls so I sang a song I use in my teaching little kids called OBEY.  Again, a tune using London Bridge.  

1st verse:  O-B-E-Y spells OBEY, spells OBEY, spells OBEY, 

                 O-B-E-Y spells OBEY and that is what I'll do.  

2nd verse:  I will listen and obey, and obey, and obey, 

                  I will listen and obey, that is what I'll do.

Later, Kaia helped me with spaghetti sauce for spaghetti pie for dinner.  

This marble game is a big hit.  My grandfather had made one that I played with as a child.

The girls helped wash our car.

Tenley showed us her new car (hand me down from her cousin).

Zoom zoom!  She zipped around!

Then Papa gave rides in his cart.

We were waiting on the other 2 families to come from Arkansas and Wisconsin!

Preparing

Our kids went back home 4 days ago.  Christmas is over, the house is back in order.  And now I can reflect and share about it.

Preparing for the celebration of the Day of Christ's Birth included parties with my dear friends in my Bible studies.  In my "older ladies" class, I taught the lesson from Kristi McLelland's "Luke in the Land - the Incarnation"; how Jesus brought His kingdom to the earth.

In "The Sacred Romance" by Curtis/Eldredge, it is stated this way:  "Under cover of the night, He stole into the enemy's camp incognito, the Ancient of Days disguised as a newborn.  The Incarnation, as Phil Yancy reminds us, was a daring raid into enemy territory.  The whole world lay under the power of the evil one and we were held in the dungeons of darkness.  God risked it all to rescue us."

                                                        Everybody brought lots of goodies.

This treat is called "Kansas fenceposts after a snow storm". Easy to make and fun to eat!

My young mother's group had a party also.  We always have a gift exchange finding used things that we no longer use at home and re-gifting that.  I also gave a devotional on the gifts we receive from God.  Can you think of what He gifts us?  Are you grateful?  Do you know that even affliction can be a gift as it can draw us closer to the LORD as we lean on Him and find strength in Him.

Getting ready for our 3 kids and their families to come, there was lots of housecleaning to do and making 11 beds; several singles, 1 full, 2 queens and a king.  Luckily we have a study and 4 bedrooms in the basement.  And 3 company bathrooms, although they used ours too. It took me several days of preparation. I decided that next year, I will hire someone to help me!  It was exhausting!  But also joyfilled with anticipation of all the kids coming!

I always send out Christmas cards.  We have written Christmas letters for many years and one of our gifts for the kids was to put saved copies of them in binders for each family.  History of our family through the years. When we first began to type these up, it was 1982, pre-computer days.  I did have an electric typewriter though.  And I made copies for them either on the church xerox machine or maybe at Dillons.

Our gift to each other was a Reverse Osmosis water purification system.  I do not like the taste of our city water.  So many minerals!  Ugh.  I was so excited that the workers could install it before our family came!  Before, I used 2 pitchers to filter it twice before I deemed it ok to drink.  Ok, call me a water snob. 

I made several batches of Uncle John's peanut brittle.  Allen helped me make some peppernuts (pfeffernusse), German Mennonite little bite cookies, a traditional snack we eat every year.  Quite addictive!  Here is one recipe that you could follow if you want to try making them!

On Christmas Eve, we went to our church for the service.

And afterwards we did our traditional of driving around town looking at lights.

On Christmas morning, I was enjoying the quiet before the house is filled with 16 people and lots of laughter and noise!  They would begin coming on the 26th and 27th.  

Christmas is the day we celebrate when Christ was born (We know it wasn't that day.  More likely in September.)  

His hands were so little.  Do you suppose Mary counted each one and tenderly held them, kissed them?

Then He grew up.

He came to die for us.  His hands were pierced for us.

"This is real love - not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins."  1 John 4:10

I have taught part of this verse to the 3-5 year olds at Awana Cubbies in a song.  

To the tune London Bridge:

    God loved us and sent His Son, sent His Son, sent His Son,

    God loved us and sent His Son.  1 John 4:10

King Jesus became a very vulnerable baby, grew up and died in our place.

Thankful days

            Let the peace of God rule in your hearts... and be thankful.                                                                                                                            Col. 3:15

            

May my life be steeped in thankfulness!

We celebrated two Thanksgivings.  The week before, the Graber siblings got together at the family farm.  Julie drove down from Lawrence and we drove to Pretty Prairie together.

There had been some rain and the roads were a little sloppy, but not too bad.

A niece and her husband and daughter, and our nephew and wife were able to make it too.

Then on Thanksgiving Day and our son invited us to come share a few days with them in Arkansas.  We decided to go through Tulsa as we figured the traffic might be heavy on the way through Joplin that we often take.  The traffic was not bad at all.  

Yes we do!!

Josh was smoking a turkey when we got there.  Here is a picture before he put the turkey in the smoker.

The table was set so pretty!

Staci's parents joined us for the dinner.

The turkey was so moist and delicious as was the rest of the food! 

 The dogs were begging.

Emeri made cinnamon rolls with her Grammy for our breakfast the next day.

We always used to sleep at the Prier's home, but Josh's have added a pull out sofa in their study, so now they have a very comfortable guest room for us.

The next day was Black Friday.  I have never gone shopping on a Black Friday before but Staci and her mom and Emeri said we should!  We did not go at the crack of dawn by any means.  We had a very good time at Pinnacle Hills.  

I remember hearing someone say that on Thanksgiving we give thanks to God for all He is, for all He has done for us and for His provisions, including this nation.  Then the next day we decide we need to buy more stuff!  But of course, Christmas IS around the corner and there are gifts to buy! Lisa and I ended up buying the same gift for each other and we'll take them home and wrap them and act surprised when we get it.  

 We ate at the Big Orange.  Look at the cassette tapes that are on the wall as a "wallpaper".  I tried out their lentil burger with avocado.

By this time, Staci was pretty tired, so she went to rest in the car while Emeri and her two grandmas continued to shop!

When we got home, Josh fixed sukiyaki for dinner and then we drove to Fayetteville Square to see the lights.

You can see that we are in the University of Arkansas Razorback HAWG territory.

There was nasty weather predicted so we opted to return to Kansas a day early. 

When we got home, I realized that the next day was Sunday AND the 1st day of Advent. So I removed the pumpkins off my table (see first picture on this post) and put out my yule log.  My dad made this yule log for me when we got married. He had made one for mom when we lived in Japan so I grew up with this tradition.

I will try to do the rest of the decorations sometime soon.