Holiday Magic

My sister Maryanne (pictured with me above) came for a visit several weeks ago. We bonded for almost a week. She is trying to keep track of mom since she became a California girl and will return for another visit in a week or so. It's much fun to have the three of us together (counting mom).

With 4 of our children around for the holidays, we really have been busy! We've all been together for much of the past two weeks and it has been wild and wonderful. With 16 grandchildren here at the same time you can imagine all of the resulting activity. Lots of the kids participated in some of the 12 days of Christmas that Audrey and Cliff have designed for their family and willingly shared with the rest of us.It seems that traditions are coming to us in greater abundance now than when the kids were young and home with us. We held a "Bethlehem Dinner", sponsored by Audrey and Cliff, built gingerbread houses, had the Christmas play with all the kids participating on Christmas Eve. I tried to make it more successful by assigning parts and costumes ahead of time. I believe it made a big difference in how seriously the kids took the wonderful story and how well they acted it out.

On Christmas day we held our usual Christmas brunch, sharing of gifts between families, video of the Christmas play and a family talent show. Just about every child and some of the grown-ups participated in the talent show. It was our most successful yet!

The holiday spirit culminated in our New Year's Eve get-together. We ate, watched "Second Hand Lions (a movie favorite) and played games until the arrival of 2009. Here's hoping that it will bring us blessings and improve the status of our little angel Carmen and our loving matriarch, mom.

Pictures from the top: Maryanne and me during her visit several weeks ago. To the right of that is Miles (son of daughter Jessica) checking out his stocking on Christmas morning. Next are our angels all set to appear to the shepherds on the night of Jesus' birth. The third row down left is a scene from our nativity play; to the right of that is mom, surrounded by our daughter Jessica and her husband, Chris. Beginning the narrative is Alexis (daughter of son Ben), Allegra (daughter of daughter Audrey), and Jacqueline (Alexis' older sister). The girls are celebrating the Bethlehem Dinner mentioned in the narrative. To the right of that are Gemma, Miles and Peyton (children of daughter Jessica) participating in the family talent show. The last picture shown is Alexis admiring the Christ Child.