Christmas Day 2023

Monday:  The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas went by super fast this year! Here it is Christmas Day 2023. Ruthanne and Terry have been in Detroit since Friday afternoon because most of their family live there--so this gave me a little extra time to prepare for Christmas events here with the boys and family. I spent a lot of time wrapping gifts! I had a LOT to wrap! I love buying gifts for everyone--it's one of the high points of the season for me. 

The plan today was for me to show up over at Dylan and Kelly's by about 12:45. Kelly said we would be eating "brunch" about then. I showed up at about 12:30-ish and unloaded my car ... here are a few pictures of what I brought with me:

Here are most of the presents wrapped and ready to go.

Below is a close-up of a little file container I set up for the kids. See their names? They each have a Pendaflex folder with 3 smaller manilla folders inside. This is to store their art work and other papers. I also purchased them Ed Emberley drawing books: The Big Purple, The Big Green, Drawing Faces and Animals, and his Thumprint/Fingerprint books! I made a folder for stickers and filled it up with cool ones for them to play with. There is a folder with pre-made blank books for them to turn into stories and illustrations, there is an Origami folder with Origami paper and instruction booklet, there's a folder with colored paper, one with tracing paper, and then there is a stencil folder with about 18 very nice stencils!

I also bought them a four-drawer organizer with arts supplies: erasable colored pencils, rulers, a stapler, tape, scissors, highlighters, ink pads, regular pencils, coloring books, crayons, and other paper supplies! I'm so excited to give this to them!

I also put a very cheap ham in the crockpot and doused it with honey, brown sugar, dijon mustard and ... I forget what else--but it was very juicy and delicious! I brought a bunch of fruit and my fruit dip too. Kelly had huge waffles, dollar pancakes, all kinds of sausages, little egg bites, cheeses and everything else under the sun that a person could ever eat for brunch! 

Before we ate, though, we opened presents.

It's always a blast to watch these guys open their gifts. Since these two bigger presents were for the whole family, everyone got in on tearing off the paper.

Here is Erin with her "fairy" Barbies. She likes them a lot!

And Brendan opening up Pokeman Cinderace deck ... he is very pleased about receiving it. Look at his dear face ...

I also got Brendan a beautiful edition of "Pinocchio" with interactive illustrations done by MinaLima.

Aidan received Pokemon SkeledirgeEX in a packet, along with all of our favorite "Those Darn Squirrel" books.

Uncle Shane always gives the kids really nice gifts. Here is Aidan very excited to receive a LEGO model--I can't remember what ... Minecraft perhaps?

Little Cal received a video game from his Uncle Shane ... and Erin got a doll stroller (she loves this) and I never did see what Brendan received! 

Erin loved the little owl ornaments I gave to Kelly ...

Isn't this a nice picture of Dylan?

And here is Kelly opening up her Beatrice Zinker Irish pillow! She thought it was wonderful!

I brought over these goofy Santa glasses thinking one of the kids might want to wear them--but they turned me down point blank! So I wore them for awhile ...

I'm not sure who picked out this cool Lightning MacQueen truck for Cal but it was a real hit with him. He loves the movie, "Cars" and he just loves CARS and TRUCKS in general.

Here is Erin and Cal playing with Erin's Poly Pocket set.

I asked Erin to choose which Barbie she liked best and she picked the one with the bright pink hair because "that's my favorite hair color, gramma!" 

Wow. Those are some wild looking fairies, Erin!

Little Cal had so much fun playing ... look at that kissable little face.

... licking frosting from his sticky fingers ...

His beautiful hair ...

Brendan sketching from his Anime' sketch book ...

More Lightning MacQueen ...

I got Cal a little Hot Wheels set with a car wash. I would like to find more to connect with it. It's better made than some of the other Hot Wheels things I've seen. Cal really likes to wash cars.

Here are Brendan and Kelly in front of their beautiful front window ...

And the apple pie that I baked ...

The kids Aunt Shannon sent a very nice sports set that included bowling, soccer, and hockey. The boys really went to town with it.

It was such a nice day. I love playing with the children and just being with Dylan and Kelly is always a treat.

I left their house at about 4:30, though, to drive over and spend time with Jesse. I took absolutely zero pictures at his house! He was alone, though, and already had time with his kiddos the day before. So he and I examined his very cool LEGO set (the Delorean model Matthew got for him)--Jesse told me it took him eight solid hours to assemble it! It's quite amazing in its detail and it was fun to see it all put together. Jesse got me all caught up on the NFL/AFL standings and played me the 30 minute highlights from the most recent Lion/Vikings game (I can't see the games because I don't have a television). I was glad to be with Jesse in the quiet of his house. He is happy there and works hard to make it a nice place to live.

So much to give thanks for today! Most of all, though, for the birth of my Savior JESUS--who went so far out of His way to make it possible for us to be reconciled to God and made part of His forever family. What a wonderful Savior He is. May I grow more and more in love with Him every day of the rest of my life.