Christmas 2018

All our grands :)

Our Christmas celebration started with the grandchildren and making gingerbread houses. Other years I had bought gingerbread house kits but this year we decided to make them with graham crackers. Steve and I did what everyone does these days and googled how to make gingerbread houses with graham crackers. We watched a You-Tube video and proceeded to follow the instructions. Here are the five little houses we made for the five oldest grandchildren (we did not think Clara was quite old enough to participate this year).

5 little houses sitting in a row ready to be decorated

And just because Steve was having so much fun, he also made a granddaddy one.

The big house

On Christmas Eve morning, Steve drove to Manheim and picked up Alexis, Lydia, Mark & Hannah. Shawn dropped Awstin off around the same time they arrived back home. The first order of business was decorating the houses. They all did so well!

The girls

The boys

Awstin

Mark

Hannah & Lydia

Mark's finished house

Lydia's finished house. Aren't the lampposts awesome?

Hannah's house. She liked Lydia's lampposts so added some to her house.

Alexis's house. Love the door frame and the smoke coming out the chimney.

Five little finished gingerbread houses all in a row

We spent the rest of the day playing and doing other fun activities.

Coloring goes better with sunglasses on

Love the concentration

These two had a lot of fun with the race track

Around five o'clock the rest of the family arrived and we went to Jeremy and Megan's house for supper. We were happy that Steve's mother could join us for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

The only picture I have with Mom on. Sorry it is a little blurry. Josh is in the Christmas spirit with his hat.

After supper, we came back to our house for the remainder of the evening. I don't have pictures of the gifts but suffice it to say it was interesting. We thought we were all getting mystery boxes from Amazon that Josh had ordered. At one of our Wednesday night suppers he was telling us how you can order a mystery gift box from Amazon. They are usually filled with returned items and Amazon boxes them and offers them as mystery gifts. We thought that sounded like fun, so instead of exchanging names, we decided to each give Josh $25.00 to buy a mystery box for us. Well, Josh got to reading the reviews and wasn't overly impressed so he and Julissa decided to go to Ollie's and Dollar Tree and buy $25.00 worth of items for everyone. One weekend when Jeremy was away hunting they enlisted Megan to go with them. Oh the stuff they bought! We each received a box filled with all kinds of random things like toilet bowl lights, candles, candy, slippers, plungers, pliers, sticky poop emoji, mugs, reading glasses, etc. Most of them were wrapped in Amazon boxes so we were all oblivious and had great fun exclaiming over everything. Josh & Julissa were practically doubled over with laughter and after we had opened all of them, confessed to us what they had done. So, the last laugh was on all of us, but I think Josh & Julissa and Megan got a lot of enjoyment out of tricking all of us. They said the worst thing was taking all the Ollie and Dollar Tree price stickers off. There were so many items that it took them a long time!

Kristen and Alexis tackled the big gingerbread house that Steve had put together. Alexis tired after awhile but Kristen kept at it until it was finished.

Back of house

Side view

Front of house

And of course I have to add a picture of Clara..

This girl is so much fun!

Last of all, here is the obligatory family picture. It is quite a struggle to get a good one but we have fun trying. This was the best we could do.

How I love these people!

As I reflect on the past year, there is no denying that it has been a difficult one for Steve and I. Looking ahead, 2019 doesn't appear like it will be any better. It is easy to concentrate only on everything that is going wrong and feel sorry for ourselves. However, I had an interesting conversation with a co-worker right before Christmas. He is well aware of the situation that Steve and I are dealing with. He said to me,

"I know your life is difficult right now, but I want to tell you something. When I walk in your office, I always see the pictures of your family. My wife and I would give anything for a family like that. She cries every day over the poor choices and decisions that our adult children are making. Your children are all happily married and living a christian life. You are blessed with grandchildren who know you and love you. We would take what you are going through in a heartbeat if it would mean having a family like yours."

I was speechless and it made me stop and think. Yes, what we are going through is really, really tough. But, I am so blessed with this beautiful and supportive family that we have. Of course, we (they) are not perfect, but when I compare my family with other families, there is no doubt in my mind that ours is the best. I'm not biased on anything :)

So, at the end of this difficult year, I am still thankful, especially for this family of mine. Bring on 2019 and we will deal with whatever comes.