Christmas to New Years

Merry Christmas


Christmas Eve . . .

Cookies rolled, cut, baked, decorated,


and set out for Santa.


The children unwrapped their Christmas pj's and Grandma and Papa, visiting from WA, read the bedtime stories. Molly, being the oldest, couldn't wait to get to bed for fear Santa would pass us by.

At last, Christmas morning arrives and as the little ones walk down the steps they think they can still hear the faint sound of the sleigh bells. They soon realize the sound is none other than the spinning of a gerbil wheel. The gerbils, now better known as Snowball and Guinea, have stole the show.



Although there were many other smiles to be seen . . .



We were certainly smiling. Grandma and Papa stayed with the kids while Travis and I had an overnight date in Columbus. It's always nice to get away.


Another Christmas miracle, it actually got warm enough later in the week to play at the park.



And Happy New Years

Homemade egg rolls, thanks to Lori, and fried rice for dinner. Way too much of the chocolate fountain for dessert.
I got a feeling this year is gonna be a great one.

Here We Go Again

OK, I have a lot to cover so I'm just going to pick up where I left off at Thanksgiving and take it from there...
NOV. 27th

Molly, in carrying on the tradition that I had as a young girl, is preparing the olive tray for Thanksgiving dinner. Good people and good food makes for good times.

NOV. 28th
Then, as has been our tradition for the last four years, we were off to the Amish tree farm to cut the perfect tree. We roasted hot dogs, made s'mores, sipped hot chocolate, and even ran into some friends. It would have been totally perfect had we, and I mean I, not locked the keys in the car. Oh well, perfection is overrated anyway right?






NOV. 29th
Cleveland Winterfest at Public Square
This was a lot of fun. We love catching the train to Tower City Mall this time of the year. They have so much to see. If you haven't had the chance to meet Bruce the Talking Spruce yet, I promise its worth the trip. Our kids love him and he will talk to them forever about anything. We also got to see lots of cool gingerbread houses and tons of lights. Not to mention right in the heart of downtown Cleveland you can go and see a nativity.






NOV. 30th
Letters to Santa



DEC. 1st
Advent Calendars


DEC. 5th
Country Lights (Santa's Workshop)


(attempted pictures with Santa)


Now this only covers a couple of weeks time and you can see we have been pretty busy. The sad thing is that while it is all very "Christmasy" not much of it has anything to do with Christ. I have to say I am glad to have all the "fun" stuff out of the way. We have had more time this last week to focus on the real and true meaning of it all and still have fun. When it comes down to it, I want the memories to be lasting, but the feelings to be built on something REAL!

TX Finale: Poppy's Ranch

This is the first time we've been to Poppy's ranch since he got his cattle. This was the picture I took of the kids right as they stepped out of the car and onto the land... they weren't sure how to react to thirty or so hungry cows heading in their direction.




Grammy and Poppy hung out by the barn while Trav, the kids, and I took the four wheeler and went down to the river. The ranch has about 2 miles along the Rio Grande River and it is so beautiful. We love exploring the ranch, the kids love going FAST! (especially the girls, they're just like their mom)









Of course I have to mention that we rode to the ranch in Poppy's new toy, The Travelall Bounder 39' diesel. This thing even has a front load washer and dryer in it. Dad, if only you had had this while we were growing up. Then maybe all those family road trips in the station wagon wouldn't have been intermingled with death threats to our lives for constantly harassing each othere... actually it probably wouldn't have made a difference.

We loved being south, as always, and we will miss you guys like crazy. So until next time.

Grandmas Retiring!!!

Happy Retirement Grandma!
We just hope this means you can come and spend more time with us.