Christmas | 2021

I invited you to tour my Christmas home . . . and then I disappeared to celebrate Christmas with my dear ones! 

Again this year, I tried to be guarded with my expectations of the holidays, especially as friends and family all around us were becoming ill with Covid, some very ill. Maybe one of the good things that has come from this pandemic is that we are learning to hold our plans loosely. "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that."  So we kept on planning and getting ready, hoping and praying . . . 

And then, thanks be to the Lord, we had two weeks of celebration! 

Kati, Andrew, Caleb and Ellie arrived a couple of days before Christmas and we enjoyed family gatherings, visits in one another's homes, cuddling babies (do you remember that we currently have FOUR babies in our family aged just-barely-two and under?), eating, making coffee runs, chasing after toddlers, playing in the floor, too many treats, not enough kisses, and soaking it all in. 

I am going to share just a few oodles of photos from our time together. I tried to choose my favorites, but even so, there are many. 

Playing with Papa's new toy 

My mom's orange rolls are one of the highlights of Christmas breakfast.

Caleb got a new water bottle . . . like his dad's (which he loved), but more his size!

Our oldest daughter Kristin and her family

Our son Ryan and his family

Our middle daughter Kati and her family

Our youngest daughter, Bekah

Ron and I

Twinning 💙💗

A little side note: Bekah is wearing a kilt that Gammy (my mom) bought on a trip to Scotland in the early '80's, nearly twenty years before Bekah was born!

I love how Gampy (my dad) and Ellie are looking at one another as they meet for the first time! 

Baby cousins, Ellie and Joanna, born exactly three months apart!

Ellie turned 6 months old while visiting us. She is such a sweet, happy baby!

A new tradition.
Last New Year's Eve, Andrew (a college professor) taught us an informal lesson about color-blindness. At our request, he gave another lecture. This year's topic was depth perception.

The first time this sweet baby had a babysitter (a bunch of babysitters, actually)!
Her mom and dad and older sibling ran a 5K, and the three youngest came to Gran's house. 

It looked a little bit like a daycare here in our living room! 😊

Looks of concentration . . . 

. . . while everyone participates in a hot dog taste test! 
Each participant received a bite-sized piece of six different brands of hot dog and assigned each a score according to taste.

 

Andrew (remember . . . college professor) analyzed the data.

It turns out that Hebrew Nationals ranked the highest in our family.
But I think most agreed that dessert was pretty fine!

chocolate peanut butter trifle

Caleb, a southern boy, enjoyed looking at the snow.

His mama helped Caleb find a "dinosaur" in his (Quaker Dinosaur Eggs) oatmeal!

On the last morning he was here, I asked Caleb to wave good-bye to Papa who had already gone to work.

Airport good-byes are always a little teary (especially when there are babies who will have changed so much by the time we see them again!), but we are so grateful for the gift of time spent together!

"And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at His birth."

Luke 1:14