A Beautiful Christmas

It's been another beautiful Christmas at the close of another wonderful year.  We have so many blessings to be grateful for, and we feel the Lord's goodness and mercy to us keenly.  The greatest blessing, of course, is our dear family.

The kids were invited over to a friend's house to make Christmas trains --akin to Gingerbread houses and just as much fun to eat!

Adelaide's was a very modern, abstract interpretation of the theme.

What do you get when you put 10 little cousins together? Pandemonium and a lot of fun! We spent five days at my parent's house with the entire family there.  We did our best to keep the kids busy. I call it "controlled chaos." We played with play dough,

made gingerbread houses,

made lots of beautiful artwork,

played in dirt,

had a hot dog roast,

acted out the Nativity,

(Michael was the lone wise man, reverently offering gifts.)

(Sadie was an angel. Appropriate, don't you think?)

(Adelaide was a very colorful sheep.)

hung stockings,

opened stockings first-thing Christmas morning,

and, of course, opened many, many presents.

 On Thursday, we drove to San Antonio to spend a few days with Matt's family.  

More presents! Michael got a gardening kit. (Smart Grandma!)

Sadie got a baking kit. Yum, yum!

Adelaide got a variety of fun toys, but her favorite, by far, was the big red ball.

Legos really are the best toy ever invented!

 It was very close to a perfect week.  The only hindrance was that all three kids came down with a horrible cold/flu virus the day before we left. They spent a great deal of time feeling awful, but they were having so much fun, I don't think they really noticed. 

We loved seeing so much of our family, and sadly missed our family and friends we didn't get to see. Whether near or far, we think of you often and pray for you regularly and  hope the coming year brings a continuation of God's blessings for all of us.