Christmas fun 2021!

 Our Christmas fun this year started with a little family gathering for a fingerfood dinner and games hosted by Moss and Christie on Christmas Adam.  Unfortunately, I didn't take any pics of this event.  I was too busy enjoying myself.  We ate yummy food and then played Hellsapoppin' and another fun game.  The kids pretty much played upstairs and and adults hung out down stairs after the food part.  We missed Jay and Brynn, and the Weavers and the Randalls were not able to attend with so many things going on this time of year and because the don't live as close and easy to come.  But it was fun with who was there.  Supe took one picture of me and dad looking tired with Jem.  Paul and Bean had just gotten back home from working long hours on Jay and Brynn's fireplace in their new house up north.  I was still recovering from my last chemo gig.  

We had Christmas Eve dinner with Anna Lou, Bean, Ferf (Ryan had the kids), and Bean.  Afterwards we went light looking a little differently.  We just went down to the Town Square and walked around in the beautiful lights they put up there.  That was about all Anna Lou could handle.  Afterwards we came home and tried to find room for our gingerbread dessert.  It was a nice evening.  

For Christmas Day we had Anna Lou and Bean over for breakfast, opened our gifts here, and then went visiting the rest of the family at their houses.  It's a great tradition! We did get to talk to Jay and Brynn on the  phone while we were here at the house.  The kids got us an awesome gift this year - a hot air balloon ride!  (Ellie painted a little painting to show us what we were getting!)

We started at Supe and Beacher's.  It was fun to see Jem enjoying Christmas and his parents enjoying  him enjoying it - the first year he could really get into it!  We got him the craziest singing, ear waving dog toy and it was hilarious watching him figure it out.  He's got it down now and knows how to turn it on and off and change to a new song.  (By the way, all of the grand puppies got dog cookies for Christmas.  Next year I need to remember Molly, the grand cat!)

Next stop was at Moss and Christie's!  They have been such wonderful hosts in their beautiful new house these latest holidays.  We really appreciate them letting us come and enjoy ourselves.  

Next we hurried over to Ferf's.  Ryan has the kids for this Christmas holiday, but we are grateful that he agreed to let them come over and open presents at Ferf's for a little while on Christmas afternoon.  It would have been hard to have had to wait.  It was nice to have Tavin home from his mission and Brynnli down for the  holidays.  Tavin and Kennis played a song they were prepping for church on Sunday and then Gaige and Koen played for us too.  They all did a great job.  

Then we went over to Derek's and kids'. We didn't get there at a time we could talk to Kaebri unfortunately. But we had a nice time.  And we had some great impromptu concerts; Tasia did her piano recital songs that Paul had missed the week before, and Zade played a Christmas song for us on his trumpet.  They were both did a great job.  Zade and Trigg then showed us a karate form that they could do together.  It was cool!  If you look close, Derek is holding his phone with a picture of Kaebri on it!

Then it was time for lunch and a nap!  Anna Lou was very worn out, so we took her home. That's about all she can usually handle. After our little break the Weaver family dropped by.  It was such a nice afternoon that we all went out on the front lawn and opened presents and enjoyed the sun while it lasted.  They had a dinner date at Lance's folks, so we didn't get to hang out too long, but it was very nice.

In explanation:  this was the year of the ZOX bracelets for almost every grandchild.  But since Juge is the one who introduced me to them and all of her kids already had one, I did Conscious Step (save the animals) socks for them instead.  ZOX helps build water wells for people in other parts of the world.  So it was a "help save something" Christmas.  All of the adults in the family got Conscious Step socks as well as the Weaver family.  I had fun picking out all of these bracelets and socks for everyone.  

Last of all, and as per tradition, we then drove up to the Randall's to finish off Christmas Day!  They are so nice to let us drop in and eat and party with them.  Ferf, Brynnli and Tavin joined us there too.  We ate lots of yummy things and then the Randall's opened gifts. One special gift was the flute that Lou and Weed both used when they were in band at school.  Weed had it last and Lou had been hoping to get it back, but it had been stored away in a bin and Derek hadn't found it...until just recently.  He sent it with us for Lou and she could still play it after all of these years!  A little gift from Weed to her.  After that we played a very noisy game of Pit and visited some.  Then it was time to head down the hill and call it Christmas because it was going to start snowing.  

Yippee...Here's a picture from Jay and Brynn!  The girls!!!

It was a really wonderful day.  After all the stress that we moms and grandmas feel in the getting ready for it, I am happy to say I feel good about it. And now can relax and enjoy the afterglow of another wonderful Christmas celebrated!

Bean was looking through old pictures the other day and found this picture of Jesus that Weed had drawn.  "God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine Son."  Because of that gift we will be with our sweet Weed again!  

Merry Christmas 2021!