...over a year, in fact. I have often thought of posting but never did one. But I'm here now, although I'm not going to post much this time. Just wanted to let anyone who reads this to know that I'm still around.
We had a wonderful Christmas with all our children and grandchildren around us, as well as my parents. We now have 11 grandchildren and 2 more are on the way, so our family continues to grow. I waited until the last minute, like usual, to come up with an idea of what to give the grandkids for Christmas this year and finally came up with machine embroidering t-shirts for each of them. I first thought of doing something different for each one but then as my time grew short abandoned that idea and embroidered the same thing on each t-shirt but in a different color for each child. Not much, but I hope they will like their shirts anyway. I truly enjoyed getting together with everyone, even with all the noise and commotion. On Christmas Eve, we gathered at our house for dinner and then the reading of the Christmas stories, "The Night Before Christmas" and the true story of Christmas from Luke 2 and Matthew 2. We also lit the candles on the German Nativity Pyramid that my 6th son brought home from his mission in Germany. The little kids really liked that: the "fire", the twirling of the figures, and the shadows on the ceiling. Then most of them went home. My 2nd son and his wife and son stayed here with us, as did my parents, visiting from Minnesota and Wyoming, respectively (enjoying the warmer Arizona weather!). In the morning, we ate breakfast and then opened presents, each enjoying what we received. In the afternoon, we all went to my daughter's house for Christmas dinner with everyone and socializing. The food was great and the company was better! All in all, it was wonderful to be together.
New Year's was quieter as everyone else was gone to their own homes, or in my parents' case, to my sister's home. My husband and I barely managed to stay up til midnight but we did and greeted the new year together and then went to bed.
So that's all for now, just a brief update. Hopefully the next one won't be so long in coming.
