Home for the Holidays

We were blessed that many of our friends and family were able to take time during this busy holiday season to join us last weekend for a little get-together.  It’s one of the highlights of my year to have so many loved ones in our home at Christmastime.  As usual, our guests were extraordinarily generous and came bearing delicious food.  Just look at this dessert spread!

The girls received their first fish from our friends and they’re still SO excited to feed them and check on them every day!  (We had to switch to version 2.0 of both fish within a few days, but the girls handled that very well!  So Sarah, if you’re reading this, we were right that the fish afforded us some great educational opportunities!)    

And I just adore these new dresses they were given (thank you, Maria!):

Jimmy loves his new PlayDoh set, especially since our kind friends played with it with him:

I had fun trying out some new recipes and ideas, like this appetizer “tree” and party favor “sleigh”:

Our friend Dave blessed us by leading us in Christmas carols and giving a little message.  He reminded us that we, as a society, spend so much time thinking about how magical it is to dream that a big man can fit down a little chimney that we forget how amazing it is that the Creator of the World came down to dwell among us as a man. 

Then, on Christmas Eve, we joined Jim’s aunt and uncle at my in-laws’ for a wonderful steak dinner.   Nothing says Christmas like sharing some good red meat with the ones you love! 

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We’ve had such a great time the last few weeks with the holidays that the kids are already looking forward to the next one.  The day after Christmas, Susie bounced into our room babbling about Easter and demanding to start dyeing Easter eggs!  I informed her we weren’t quite ready for that yet, but she was pacified when she learned we’ve got New Year’s Eve coming up.  Our kids sure love a party!