Photos of Christmas week ...

Finally! I'm finding both the time and strength to post some pictures of our celebration of Christmas. Today is New Year's Day, however, so first of all ... HAPPY NEW YEAR. I'm glad we took plenty of pictures last week because without them, I would have almost no recollection of what took place around here ~ the days kind of blur together sometimes with all of the comings and goings of family.
Sabrina, Andrew, Olivia, Jackson and Karis arrived the Wednesday afternoon before Christmas. Since they don't normally see snow in Texas and we had about six inches of the white stuff here, the little kids were really excited about it. I didn't go outside with them Wednesday afternoon ~ it was TOO cold and I had only started to recover from being so sick. Grandpa Jones did take some pictures, but mostly of the backs of folk heaving snowballs at each other. Hopefully Sabrina got some better photographs of their fun in the snow. The picture above is the next morning (I thnk) when we all played a game of snakes and ladders together. The game pieces that come with it are very tiny flat colored circles ... Sabrina had the idea of using some of our larger toys as the moving pieces instead. It was fun to play this way! This game is actually a puzzle that you assemble before you can actually play the game, so it adds a bit of fun even before the game begins!
Adam, Emily and Jeremiah came over later that day and everyone played together. Jeremiah has two cousins on Emily's side of the family very similar in age to Jackson and Karis ... so he was right at home playing with "older" kiddos. He seemed to like our small Thomas the Christmas Train layout we had in the front room.
We naturally did a bit of art projects because ... it's so much fun to do with grandchildren!
Everyone was working on making Christmas cards and pictures to give as gifts ...
I had a few foam Christmas stickers that were fun to play with ...

And then before we knew it (practically), it was Christmas Eve. We attended the 5:00 worship service that night ... so beautiful. We listened to the Christmas story from the gospels, we sang tons of beautiful Christmas carols, and the little children had a special Christmas story that was read to them.

This is Karis and Jackson sitting on the platform in the front of the church looking at the monitor as the story of "Humphrey's First Christmas" was read to all of the children gathered there. Cute story too.
After the service was over, we ate a yummy dinner at Olive Garden ... such great food ...
Karis enjoyed her dinner there very much. This is such a sweet picture of her.
And I love this picture of Olivia and Andrew. She didn't know I was taking it ... so ... look at her beautiful smile!
I'm not sure which day these next few pictures are from! I think it is earlier in the day on Christmas Eve. Adam and Emily were over for awhile, but then they had plans with Emily's family for Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning was ... early! I think Olivia would have enjoyed a few more hours of sleep, but she was quite outnumbered by the little kiddos ...
... who couldn't wait to open presents!
This is Karis digging way way into her stocking to show us she had emptied the whole thing!
Olivia ... you have the sweetest face! Olivia was so pleased with everything she opened.
Karis and Jackson were SO excited during the gift opening, that they were put in charge of handing out the presents ... so as to distract them and keep them busy while waiting for their next present to open. It worked well!
Andrew received this beautiful Bocce ball set from Sabrina ...
Jackson got many and various sized sets of LEGOS ... he is a very good builder and just loves everything LEGO makes!
Karis received a "Jessie" doll that looked exactly like the Toy Story doll she is from! She is really cute and has a pull string with (I think) 30 different sayings!
Olivia made a beautiful card for her folks from the foam stickers we were working on prior to Christmas and wrote a nice long note as well.
More family came over a little later in the day on Christmas ... in time for dinner and more gift opening ...
Little Mister was all dressed up for Christmas in a darling little penguin vest ... isn't he precious? These are wonderful pictures of Adam and Jeremiah!
Since this is Dylan and Kelly's first married Christmas, Sabrina made them a special Christmas ornament ~ wasn't that sweet of her?


Jackson and Karis found a basket of some of my puppets and were behind the couch entertaining Dylan and Kelly. I love Jackson's smile as he is looking at Paco the Pig ...
This is one of the Toy Story 3 LEGO sets that Jackson received. Sabrina put a lot of the harder parts together, but Jackson is a good builder too!
Karis received a couple of BIG Melissa & Doug puzzles, which have thick sturdy pieces. This was a Safari puzzle, 4 feet long, very colorful. We all helped to put it together.
We did a bunch of art stuff during various afternoons before and after Christmas. I really liked the ladybug Sabrina drew with the help of my newest Melissa & Doug stencil sets ... Sabrina is very artistic.
Emily tried her hand with playing our Bedouin flute ... she did pretty good with it ... I've tried it for ages and all it does is screech! Can you see #12 grandchild starting to show on Emily's tummy?
I love these photos of Emily and her wee man ...
Tuesday night we had a pizza and game night and invited the whole gang. We had given Adam and Emily a LEGO game, "Creationary", for Christmas ~ it's just like "Pictionary" only you take a card and BUILD the picture until someone guesses what on earth you are trying to build! It's really a fun game. I don't think it's in regular stores yet. I found it on LEGO's website (www.lego.com). The game is labeled, "Ages 7 and up" and since Jackson is 6-1/2 and watched us playing the game for awhile and begging to play ... we had him play a couple of rounds with us! He was SO good at guessing what was being built ~ and he did very decent when it was his turn to do the building! I think he enjoyed himself hugely playing with the adults.

I have tons more photographs, but I think these give you some idea of what our Christmas was like. Last night, I did sit quietly by our beautiful Christmas tree and listened to Michael W. Smith's latest Christmas album and gave thanks again for our Lord and Savior and His great kindness in coming to earth for us. My goal is to be more like Him this year and love Him with all of my heart. I hope your New Year is filled with His many blessings!

Roy is 90 today ...

Almost four years ago now, my mother (Nana) and Roy fell in love ... they married three months later. Roy is an exceptional person in just about every way. I cannot say enough kind words about him. He is a person who loves unconditionally ... what a precious gift! He also is a man of integrity, hard-working, honest, and one of the kindest folk you will ever meet!

Today is Roy's 90th birthday. I love this picture of my mom and her Roy. Roy's only son, David, planned a nice surprise birthday occasion for him two weeks ago; but I was so sick, I could not attend. I was hugely disappointed. I had wanted to deliver his birthday card and present today, but Nana slipped and fell on a patch of ice outside in their driveway almost two weeks ago and she is really in a lot of pain. Thankfully, nothing is broken ... but she has to rest and recover. She really isn't "up" for company ... so I'm going to phone Roy a bit later and sing "Happy Birthday" to him (I'm sure he'll be thrilled).

He comes to make His blessings flow ...

I love Christmas carols. I have always loved them. Even as a small child, my favorite part about Christmas was the church service the night before Christmas. We attended a fairly large church in Detroit and almost every year there was a choir cantata performed on Christmas Eve. Always beautiful. I looked forward to it so much.

But even more than the choir, I enjoyed the congregational singing of favorite Christmas carols. "Joy to the World" was never my favorite ... except for verse three: "No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found ..." As far as the curse is found? Wow. I used to mull that one over sitting in the pew ... and it gave me such hope and peace that some day all would be well.

As I've grown older in my faith, I have learned to appreciate all of the verses in this dear old carol ~ "Joy to the world, the LORD is come! Let earth receive her King!" Isn't that what it's all about? Jesus the King? He is King of the Universe, the Maker of heaven and earth and every living thing. I am glad Jesus is MY King. More than anything, He deserves my praise and worship ... He alone is worthy.

So I sing this song with JOY and say: "Let every heart prepare Him room ... and heaven and nature sing!" These photographs and lyrics were used as our Christmas card this year. We mailed out 90 of them!

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of you. After being seriously ill the last two weeks, I am on the mend and so grateful for it. I hope your celebration of IMMANUEL, "God with us", is full of JOY.

"From the fullness of God's grace, we have all received one blessing after another." JOHN 1.16

A few pictures from yesterday ...

In just a few hours, Sabrina's family will be here ... just wanted to give a quick update before that happens. Close to two weeks ago now as I was leaving El Paso, I came down with some kind of bacterial infection. Spending the night and getting a deep chill at O'Hare probably didn't help ... but I've essentially been sick since arriving home. And to make a long story (it's not very interesting) short, I've been under a physician's care and am in the middle of an antibiotic regimen that is kicking the infection out ... slowly.

Every year, the preparation for Christmas is quite the thing and I usually stay on top of things, organizing, baking, cleaning ... getting ready! And I was pretty much right where I expected to be before I left for Texas ... all my ducks were in a nice, neat row!

Seriously, I haven't been this sick in close to 40 years. I do remember the last time and it was between high school and college ... the summer I had mono and a deep throat infection that lasted six weeks. I'm so glad that I am beginning to feel better ~ and it's only been TWO weeks!

Having said that, none of the Christmas presents were wrapped as of yesterday ... so Dylan and Kelly came over and did it FOR me ...
They even liked the idea of making our own wrapping paper out of tissue and stamping Christmas images was ... F-U-N ... so this might even become a tradition! :)
They wrapped every single present ~ beautifully ~ and they are all under our tree!
Later in the afternoon, Emily and Jeremiah stopped by for a few hours ...
Couldn't resist showing you Little Mister since we did take a few snapshots of him. Adam will join everyone this weekend ~ he's flying in from Minneapolis ~ so, we'll have lots and lots of pictures to post ... later. I may actually have to post in retrospect, which I don't enjoy very much ... but being sick only allows a person so much energy and time ...

Happy Birthday and Anniversary!

Nicolas celebrates the big 3-0 birthday today and we wish him the very happiest of days. It's also he and Rachel's sixth wedding anniversary ~ which hardly seems possible ~ but then look at all of these beautiful kiddos ... four children in rapid succession!

We hope today is really special for both of you. We love you and wish you great celebrations. We are thinking of you with much LOVE.

El Paso trip: December 4

I've been home from El Paso for four days now. I can't believe it has taken me this long to post these pictures and chronicle the time I spent with Jesse's family last week ... but I've had a nasty cold and sore throat that kind of put me off! I'm determined to write our little story tonight because I have so much yet to do to prepare for Christmas ... so it's now or never.
My flights to El Paso were totally without incident. When we took off from Grand Rapids, the skies were cloudy and remained that way as we flew across the country until just about ... to the mountains! I was so glad the clouds cleared away so that I could finally see ground and mountains!
I landed on time at the El Paso airport, very excited to greet Jesse and the little kids ...
This is a not-very-good picture of them standing by the beautiful tree inside the airport. It was about 60 degrees outside at 5:00 p.m. El Paso time ... I was dressed in layers of sweaters and jackets, etc. ... but it felt weird to see this beautiful Christmas tree in such mild weather. We enjoyed many hugs at the airport and then had to hightail it out of there ~ some guy was absolutely begging us to get in line and have our picture taken with Santa Clause right there at the airport. The line was about a mile long. The picture was supposed to be free ... but we had other things to do!
I shipped Christmas packages ahead of me to El Paso, but also birthday presents for Chris. We decided to open Chris's birthday presents Saturday night but wait until Sunday to celebrate our early Christmas together. I had a few special things for all of the children in my suitcase, just to ease the pain of waiting.
So Chris opened up his LEGO Toy Story 3 Army jeep and Army guys ...
... along with a LEGO Buzz Lightyear and Woody with a pullback race car.
Since we had a LEGO expert right on hand, we let Jesse put the models together for us.
Aren't they cute? I've always loved LEGOs and think they are one of the best toys ever made.
I also brought a Snakes and Ladders game that was really a 48-piece puzzle that you had to assemble before you could play the game. We had a great time doing both!
Christopher was really pleased with his LEGOs. We had a nice time Saturday night just catching up on news, playing games, reading stories, etc. I was keenly aware that Sunday was going to be the only day of my trip where I actually had the entire day to spend with the kids ... they would have to return to school on Monday!

El Paso trip: December 5

Jesse has to be to church very early on Sunday mornings. He works the sound system there and has to help the praise and worship team do their sound checks, etc.
So we arrived THREE hours before the actual worship service began. Three hours is a long time to entertain three active children before church. I packed my backpack with as much quiet stuff as I could fit, and we found a classroom where we could lay it all out and decide what to do first!
We colored lots and lots of pictures together ~ thankfully, all three children really love to sit and do any kind of artwork available. But after about 45 minutes, they'd had enough!
We wandered the hallways and checked the building out from every possible angle. You know how curious kids are! I tried to get all three of them to smile nicely beneath the Christmas tree in the foyer, but I never did get a good snapshot of the three of them together. While we were walking around the building (inside and out), the kiddos spied a playground across the parking lot from the church. We inquired about it and one of the fellows said it belonged to the school that used the church building during the week. It was all padlocked so that no one could enter. But we were offered the key! So we took it ...
and played for at least another hour outside ...
in the beautiful sunshine ...
Matthew and Emma served me a delicious "stone and rock" breakfast ...
Christopher ran around like a wild Indian ...
Matthew played like there was NO tomorrow ...
And I enjoyed myself hugely watching them have so much fun.


Such beautiful little grandchildren! They really do have a good time together.
This contraption cracked me up ... they had a great time on it.
Jesse finally came and retrieved us from the playground just in time for church to start ...
This is Sunshine Community Church in El Paso. It's a very nice place of worship. The school-aged children participate in the singing and then are dismissed to their separate classes. I attended Emma's second grade class because when I went to drop her off, she was the only girl with six boys ~ so I stayed. The teacher, Mrs. Fernandez, taught the story of Jesus healing the 10 men who had leprosy. She did such a good job and was able to get the children to interact with the story really well.
Everyone was taking family pictures around the Christmas tree in the foyer of the church. The pastor's wife was directing the photography and taking many of the pictures herself. I just sneaked this one in on the side ...
We were quite excited to celebrate our early Christmas once we got home. I had made photo books for each of the little ones ... kind of a personal love story about memories made throughout the years with them. I tried to design each book around the meaning of their names. "Emma" means "strength" ~ and it always bugs Emma when I tell her that because she wishes her name meant "Princess." So in her book, I talked about the fact that she could be a STRONG and KIND princess and that she could do anything "with the strength that comes from the LORD." Matthew's name means: "Gift of the LORD." So I talked to him about the fact that he is a treasure, a special present, and that God loves him very much. Christopher means "Christ bearer" and so I told him that if he made Jesus the King of his life, Jesus would come and live with him forever. I made these little books through Snapfish ~ they were very fun to make and now that I've tried it, I would like to do more!
We got Di and Emma some little kitchen utencils that had little piggy faces on them ~ both Di and Emma love pigs ... they seemed to like these very much!
We got the boys a whole bunch of fun Hot Wheels stuff ... they are probably the best-priced gift in America ... so fun to play with, so easy to assemble ... endless fun.
We were able to have my niece, Shelley, autograph one of her Klinger books for Jesse's family. It's a beautiful book for military families ... and how special that our Shelley illustrated it!
Emma was most pleased with the little rubber shaped bracelets and rings we bought her! She was SO delighted with them! Look at her beautiful smile.
Matthew was just pleased to have some new cars to play with. He was especially delighted with the color-changer cars. If you sprayed really cold water on them, they would completely change color! If you sprayed HOT water on them, they would change back. Matthew sprayed everything in sight!
We had four Hot Wheel sets to assemble ... and again, we were SO thankful that assembling is Jesse's forte' ... so we got them all set up to go!
See? Matthew is holding the squirt bottle filled with water to "wash" the cars and change their colors. Matthew never got tired of spraying water ... EVERYWHERE!
I knew Jesse would get a bang out of these kits ... we had some very similar ones when he was young and all of us played with them endlessly!
In the dollar section at Michael's (I LOVE that store) I found some little wooden ornaments that could be colored with markers and decorated to hang on a tree ... so we did some of those together.
Emma picked out the nativity ornament and really enjoyed coloring it in.
We had gotten her a marker set with to go with a stencil kit for designing pretty clothes ... it's hard for me to describe, but I think Emma will enjoy all of the different styles of clothing she can put together with her kit.
Oh! There is a new member of the Pahman household ... NOT a new grandbaby ... but a new kitten by the name of Belle. She is really a beautiful little kitty and so much fun to play with. And we did a lot of that ... we played away our entire Sunday. Diana made us a nice chicken dinner and then the kiddos had to shower and get ready for school the next day ...