Christmas Wrap

We wore our pajamas all of Christmas day.  We did dress up for church the Sunday after and snapped a family pic in our special "holiday wrap", ha ha!

I love playing with the photo filters.  Here's a basic black and white called "vanilla".

Christmas Dinner

Christmas day was so lovely in our new home.  Our "great" room that has our family room, dining room, and kitchen all in one shared space was just perfect.  I spent most of the day in the kitchen preparing for our dinner feast and making this carrot cake from scratch (it only took me 3 hours to make, ugh!).  The rest of my family was playing games at the dining table, or playing with toys in the family room.  We were engaged in several activities, yet we were still all together!

Someday I'll have fancy table cloths, runners, placemats, napkins, dishes, glasses, silverware, and centerpieces.  This setting was really sweet to me though.  I opened these cute Christmas placemats from Hiram in the morning.  There were only 4, so I decided to make a runner out of them.  What a sweet boy!  Teague, Hiram, and Ali each purchased gifts for me and Leonard from their school's Christmas Shoppe.  They each bought us special things!

We invited Rita to join us for the celebration.

We're so grateful to our Lord for our bounteous blessings!

Let's eat!

I like everything in my carrot cake- pineapple, raisins, walnuts, and of course- cream cheese frosting!

I didn't get photos of the Secret Santa gifts we gave this year, except for this one.  My friend, Sonia, was doing a gift drive for our local women's shelter.  We were happy to contribute and she treated us to a viewing of the Polar Express in the classic Mayfair Theater.

Christmases on the Blog

I thought Christmas 2019 would be the last Christmas of all of us living under the same roof.  Now since the new corona virus has caused a global pandemic in 2020, we'll get a bonus Christmas this year with everyone still living together.  I still wanted to do a stroll down memory lane of all the Christmases I have on the blog.  I know it's cheesy that we take the same photos every year, but it's for reasons like this post.  You can watch our family grow right before your eyes, and the time seems to have gone just as fast!

2019

Canada

*our new house

2018

Canada

2017

Canada

*pregnant with Macy

2016

India

2015

We had two Christmases:

with the Pittls in Canada

and again in Canada

2014

Canada

2013

Canada

*pregnant with Ali

2012

Canada

2011

We had two Christmases again:

with the Lees in the USA

and Canada

2010

Canada

2009

Canada

2008

Taiwan

*pregnant with Teague

2007

Taiwan

*I got my first digital camera for Christmas 2004 and started using it on New Year's Day 2005.  Someday, I want to put the highlights from 2005 and 2006 on this blog (as I had made digital photo books, but they got destroyed from our move from India).  After that, I want to scan & blog the highlights from 2002 (when we first became parents) to 2005.  Next, I'll want to scan & blog the highlights from 1997 (the year we got married) to 2002.  Eventually, I'll go back to 1975 (the year Leonard and I were both born) to scan & blog the highlights.  I'm hoping to make digital photo books for each year, but it'll be nice to have our life story on the internet for future generations to read about too (if someone will pay the $2.59 monthly fee, ha ha!).

Since we were married we got to spend Christmas

with the Lees in 1997, 2004, 2011

the Pittls in 1999, 2001, 2015

and the Reils in 1998, and 2000.

I have this dream of rotating through Easter, Summer Reunion, Thanksgiving, and Christmas with the Lees, Pittls, Reils, and our own little family each year.  Unfortunately, we've lived too far away to do this, but maybe someday!

As our children grow up and leave the nest I dream of what Christmases will look like for us as grandparents.  I'd love if we could gather all the generations, but I know that's not very practical.  I hope our children will let us rotate through the years to spend Christmas with each child and their family.

Christmas is just the best to be with family!

Christmas Morning

 

Christmas Eve Sleep

I LOVE that my kiddos love to have a slumber party together every Christmas Eve.

I don't think they were all fully asleep when I snuck down to take these photos.

Macy was sound asleep up in her crib though.  I can't wait until she's big enough to join the slumber party!

We are ready to dream of sugar plums (even though none of us have ever eaten one, ha ha!).

Uncle Karl

My heart is heavy. I lost another wonderful uncle last night. Uncle Karl was more of a father to my dad than my grandpa was. He and Aunt Mary were always so good to me when I was growing up.  Even after I was grown, they were so good to me and my family. Love you so much Uncle Bear and look forward to when I can get another one of your amazing hugs and whiskery kisses!

All of my love goes to Aunt Mary and their family.

Christmas Eve Cookies

We used the cookie kit we received in our 12 Days of Christmas gift to decorate cookies for Santa.  Of course, we ate some too and they were yummy gingerbread.

Each of us decorated three cookies.  Our little Macy was sleeping again during this activity.  It will be so fun when she gets a little bigger and can join us.

We left these out for Santa on Christmas Eve and we woke up on Christmas morning to an empty plate.  I think he liked them!

Mall Santa

I'm pretty sure I shared this photo back in December, but since I'm playing catch-up on my blog I wanted to share it again.  The kids always enjoy visiting Santa at the mall on Christmas Eve.

 

Sun Dog

One morning when I was driving Kaleb and Noé to school, we saw our very first Sun Dog.  It was amazing!  It looked like THREE suns were rising in the sky.  Unfortunately, by the time I made it back home to grab my camera and take some pictures the effect wasn't as grand, but I still think this shot turned out pretty cool!

Wikipedia says, "A sun dog or mock sun, formally called a parhelion in meteorology, is an atmospheric optical phenomenon that consists of a bright spot to one or both sides of the Sun.  Two sun dogs often flank the Sun within a 22* halo."  All I know is that it was particularly freezing cold outside, but this was a nice perk for the temperature!