Praise God for His Son our Savior,
Jesus Christ!
We are so thankful for this Christmas season!
Amongst all of the moving and chaos
we were able to find peace and joy!
In fact... it's the 26th
and we are still lounging, way off schedule
and enjoying ourselves!
Throughout our adoptions we have ordered
Pottery Barn Kids Christmas stocking.
I am thankful they have not changed their design, too much!
I might have to send this into them for advertising!
In the beginning of the month we focused on school
(to get as far as we could before the holidays and the move)!
We packed boxes and loaded truck #1 of 3 (hopefully not 4)
on the 19th.
Then it was time to bake!
We made our favorites!
Peanut Butter kiss cookies (modified a bit)
Covered Pretzels
Fantasy Fudge
The Best Fudge
Mint Chocolate Brownies
Frosted Sugar Cookies
ALL of the children helped
and loved it!
Especially licking the spoon, beaters and bowl!
If they weren't helping me in the kitchen,
they were playing video games(Mario Cart) with Johnny!
Yes, they were way too close to the TV!
They are all going to ALL need glasses... soon!
Then we had an exercise class,
lead by Johnny!
And more video games!
FYI- We never play video games
so this was a wonderful novelty and
gave the parents time to "get things"done!
We go to a large Catholic church in Denver.
3 services were being held all at the same time!
We were thankful to have gotten seats in the gymnasium!
Have to get a few pics before we start the festivities!
Ignore the multi colored socks!
They had cute boots on but
they got wet from the dusting of snow outside!
Johnny and all of his younger sibs!
It's so fun having him here!
The kids are loving it!
Mark and Kari were supposed to come to Colorado
but Mark had an emergency appendectomy
3 days before Christmas.
Poor guy was really really sick.
We are so thankful he got it out and is now on the road to recovery!
He turned the corner
once I told him I was flying to Madison
to be with him.
Abundantly blessed!
This is me being bossy...
and telling Johnny...
how to take pictures...
Really...
close ups...
must you...
And this is how I look all of the time...
happy, joyful, yadda, yadda, yadda...
Yes... you've taken enough...
we must have a good one in the bunch...
of pics, that is!
We miss this beautiful family...
wish we could have celebrated together
but thankful
we were all together on Thanksgiving!
Matt, Caitlin and Elodie came over Christmas Eve!
Didn't take any pics except this one...
We had so much fun together!
Didn't take any pics except this one...
We had so much fun together!
Santa and Mrs. Claus are a bit older than they used to be...
to be exact, they are 61and 59!
So instead of arriving in the early morning...
they came in the early afternoon!
This may be a new tradition!
We liked it!
The kids impatiently waited...
some never got dressed for the day!
Excuse me, Melissa!
You may be laughing at the floss in your stocking
but your dentist is proud of the Claus Parents!
The chapstick will be good for all of our dry chapped lips!
And yes, you really did get socks...
because you NEED them!
There is no dress code on Christmas morning!
Come as you are!
Thank you Katie, Andrew and girls for the family portrait!
So excited to put it up in MN!
(This is a pre lipstick photo for me
and pre shower photo for hubby)!
And finally it was time to open gifts!
Sarah had no idea what she was getting.
I thought of it earlier and knew it would be a great gift for her
She loves listening to Christian music!
KLove, The Way and KTIS!
The kids gave us a short list of 3-4 gifts idea.
We gave each child one gift.
As we pack our things and know we have storage spaces in MN
we realize how much "stuff" we already have...
I was concerned that one gift would not be enough...
but, it was enough!
Everyone was thrilled with what they got!
Emma wanted Legos.
She cannot put them together herself
but it's a wonderful way for others to help her
and to play with her!
Christmas felt better this year.
It wasn't out of control with
too much stuff...
It was so much better than last year
when I was in the hospital with influenza A.
Jake and Grace are especially happy
to have their new Mom
healthy and at the celebration!
She had no idea what she was getting!
But she liked it!
I think she will be putting on a magic show in the near future!
Melissa is an amazing daughter.
She is patient and kind.
She is always that last in line for meals and snacks.
She is helpful to all of her siblings.
She is our non snitcher...
in other words she won't tell on her sibs...
even if we want her, too.
It's hard for her to pick out something she wants,
so she usually lets us do it.
When we saw her file we thought she was such a nice girl
and then we sent the file back...
2 hours later I panicked and
realized I just returned our daughters file.
I quickly called the agency,
prayed she was still available,
and asked for the file back!
Praise GOD we got it and she is forever HOME!
We've been giving Johnny Fifa soccer since he was about 9 years old...
he still loves it!
We also had 3 family gifts
(family games- credit card monopoly, star wars monopoly and speed uno)
and 2 gifts from friends!
Thank you Laura and Jodi for your kindness!
The kids were thrilled!
It was a perfect celebration for all of us!
The kids all enjoyed playing with their new toys!
The parents took a deep breath and relaxed!
Jake did this all by himself!
Praising God for HIS kindness and for this peaceful time together!
Soon, we will be back at packing and planning our move!
