Christmas with big kids, dogs and exciting news!

Christmas 2007 has come and gone and I'm late getting anything posted about our exciting and busy week. We were lucky to have all the kids home for the holidays this year and no one had to fight bad weather and roads to get here. J & J brought T & L to meet "little" Leo and they had a great time getting acquainted. Next time they meet T & L will be dwarfed by the puppy. It was such a busy few days, that unfortunately I didn't get many good family photos. It seems like we were either cooking, eating or un-wrapping presents (with a long game of monopoly and several games of mexican train dominos thrown in).

This is one of my favorite photos of the week - J and his dog (complete with bandana - sorry other J !) It's always nice to have the kids around again. No matter how old they get - they're all still kids at heart!
J & J and B & N show off their gifts from big sis E. Popcorn bowls decorated with their favorite teams. Goofing around as usual. ( Please note - N is NOT making an obscene gesture !)


Okay - now I can announce the exciting news ! J & J are going to make us grandparents this summer! We are very excited to be grandparents - just not sure if we want to be called Grandpa and Grandma! That sounds so old ! Poor J wasn't able to enjoy the holiday meals very much but hopefully that will get better soon. They are both going to find that holidays will definitely be different from now on. J is showing one of the projects I'd been trying to get done by Christmas (we've known the "news" for a couple of weeks). The piecing is done, so now she'll have to leave it here so I can get busy quilting. My other projects included aprons for all the girls. I intended to get a photo of them modeling them but guess I never got that organized! Leo has happy to have lots of attention from everyone including a cat lover like E! Poor Beamer was confined to the master bedroom and bathroom for a few days. He was happy as long as he didn't see the rest of the animals.
With so much food around, I should have gotten some other photos. This is the tenderloin we had for Christmas dinner. No turkey this year. The ham was on Sunday and a new tradition of Cioppino (Italian seafood stew - even though we're not Italian!) on Christmas eve. I didn't even get around to baking cookies this year, just some coffee cakes and quick breads for gifts. B has turned into the cookie baker of the family and brought over more goodies than we could eat! On Wednesday after Christmas Dennis and I took off for a holiday trip to Arkansas to visit his dad and stepmom. We pulled the Harley in the trailer in hopes we could get to ride in an area of warmer weather. I'll get a post together about how that turned out and the rest of our trip later this week. So here it is, 10:45 on New Year's Eve and we sit here trying to keep our eyes open until the new year arrives. So I guess we are old!

Happy 2008 everyone!

Christmas Traditions

Merry Christmas !

Our Nativity tradition began about twenty-eight years ago when Dennis' grandmother asked what ceramic creation we wanted for Christmas. She was fond of wildlife and we had plenty of ceramic elk, deer and buffalo sitting around. At the time we had one little daughter and I thought it would be nice to have a small nativity set to help her understand the story of the birth of Christ. Not one to do things on a small scale, Grandma Mary presented us with this beautiful large set. I think we've only missed one year displaying the entire scene (when we were in the process of moving) Sometimes, we've had to put the wise men and their camels on another table - but after all, they had to come from far away! There are a few cracks in the stable walls, but super glue came to the rescue and it is still holding together. The cow lost a horn one year too, but I found that in the bottom of the storage bin and glued it back in time for the next Christmas. The angel rests precariously on top of the roof and someday I need to find a better way to stabilize it. Grandma did a beautiful job with the painting of the faces and clothing, even putting little jewels on the wise men's robes. In later years as she grew more shaky, her painting wasn't quite what it had been so we are so happy to receive some of her best work. I'm grateful to still have this family Christmas tradition to remember Grandma Mary by and to be able to share it with you all here and with our family for years to come.

The kids (with dogs!) will be arriving tomorrow and the next day, so the fun begins! It is supposed to be a rare warm December day tomorrow, so a motorcycle ride might be in the plans before J & J arrive. Of course, there is still cleaning, cooking and baking on my list! It will all get done at some point!

I may not get a chance to post again for a few days so it is our wish that you too have a wonderful holiday with your family and loved ones.

Have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!