Good Morning!  It is quiet in my house now.  I sit here reflecting back over the
last two weeks, and thought I would share just a few of the highlights of that time
with you, my blogging friends.  Simple, yet meaningful highlights from my small
corner of the world.

Above, the delightful surprise that we discovered, when we drove through the
old, wooden covered bridge recently.  Someone, had lovingly hung stars from
it's ceiling, as an act of kindness for all who drove through.  At night, each star
was lit.  So pretty and memorable!  Thank you to whomever took the time to
do that for everyone!

Remember the friend who made the trees on my mantel, a few Christmases ago?  She did
it again.  She dropped by with this, yet another beautiful, unique, and artistic set of
trees that she made for me.  She is quite gifted, and I was most blessed.  I will show
you what I did with these trees in a later post.

The best part of this special season, is that I got to spend time with all of my
immediate family.   A rare happening indeed, and I treasure every memory of
it all.  This is our youngest daughter and her family, with another little guy
expected to make his entrance to this world in May.  They spent a week with
us, visiting from the Midwest.

Our oldest daughter and her family, including our oldest grandson and his
new wife, celebrating with us for the first time.

Our middle daughter and her family, who spent a week with us, visiting from
the south.

We celebrated on December 26th, starting out with a 9:00 breakfast.  Here is
the children's table.

And the adult table, including the two youngest ones.

After breakfast, we began the time with our oldest daughter reading one of our
favorite Christmas stories, "The Story of the Three Trees", followed by
our youngest granddaughter sharing verses that she memorized from Luke 2. 
What a special time it was!

Next was the gift exchange.  Soft, warm, and fluffy robes for these three. 

After our gift exchange, our middle daughter provided a time of games for everyone.
Fun games!  Games that all ages wanted to participate in.  We loved watching
a room full of our family, so intent on playing every game.

 

Only gifted game leaders can provide games that all ages want to play.

 And, all ages did, including...

 

 

...this "old" grandma.  The game...blow up balloons, stuff them into a pair of
panty hose, and place on the head.  Paw Pa's team and Maw Ma's team.  Guess
whose team one?  I still laugh when I remember it all:).

The next day, we spent the evening at a local amusement park's "winter wonderland".
What a lovely way to spend a cold holiday evening.  You can see how happy this
dad was to be surrounded by "his girls".

And of course, rides always bring smiles.

 I tried to eat more of this type of food, (thanks Hope, for an outstandingly fresh, flavorful,
and scrumptious salad!)...

...and less of this type of amazingly delicious, decadent food(thanks Jul).  Like I said,
I tried, but it is so difficult during the holidays. 

At the end of our days together, it was time to clean up the floor, and fortunately for
me, I had the cutest little helper ever to assist me!

Thank you for the privilege of sharing my celebrations with you.  Thank you for stopping
by, and for sharing your family times too.  What a blessing to have friends to share in
this journey of life.

Tomorrow a new year begins, and like we all know, we have no idea as to what all is
ahead. 

 

New Year Wishes to each and everyone of you!