December 25 Christmas Day

Sunday:  Our Christmas Day worship service was cancelled because of slippery, snowy roads ... so disappointing. Pastor Jim and a few of the worship team put together a 30-minute Christmas devotional on Youtube--which I watched and I'm glad I did. It was a blessing!

I went over to Dylan and Kelly's by about 11am. I had such a nice few hours with them and their little ones. I tried to get a picture of all four kiddos in front of their giant Christmas tree ...

The gift opening was a LOT of fun. Everyone seemed pleased with what was inside their wrapped boxes.

Little Cal was super delighted with his CARS ...

Aidan was really excited with his LEGO sets ...

Erin LOVED her unicorn family ...

Brendan was taken with the latest POKEMAN book ...

Cal kept trying to hold all six of his cars at once ... SO cute ...

Erin was super excited about her Jasmine doll that came with a special princess tiara and wand to match ...

Look at her darling little face ...

Cal's remote-control bus caused a bit of ruckus ... it was not as easy to operate as advertised and he refused ANY help, especially from his siblings ... but it all turned out just fine as time went by.

Aidan went write to work writing another "book" ... he kills me. I made him several blank books for him to use for his stories. I printed out a title page and an author summary (at the back of each book):

Here are a few more princess poses offered by Erin:

Erin lined up her little Unicorn family and gave them all a nice going over with her pretend blow dryer.

Uncle Shane arrived a little while after with MORE presents! He does a great job choosing gifts for these kids because he knows them and loves them. Little Cal opened his present to find a big floppy stuffed animal dog! Shane got Erin got the neatest doll I have ever seen: it talks and actually moves its lips realistically! Aidan received Minecraft LEGOS which he marched right up to his room for assembly in the days ahead. Brendan got a very cool video game controller and I think some more Pokémon cards.

Kelly put on a very wonderful meal. We had baked honey ham, wonderful beans and carrots, mashed potatoes and gravy and a marvelous apple pie for dessert. Yummy! I brought banana bread and French bread too.

I loved my hours spent with these guys so much. I left Dylan's right around 3:30 and drove over to Jesse's house. He has not been feeling well for several weeks in a row. Kaity was with him on Christmas Eve, but he was alone today. I spent about an hour with him and caught up with his news and some of his health concerns. I am praying he can get some answers in the weeks ahead that will help him make decisions about work and life in general.

Thank you, Lord, for leaving heaven to come to earth for us. Thank you for Your faithful love. Thank you for knowing us and loving us in spite of who we are or what we have done. Please come back soon, Lord.