Best friends?

Although this cute little Australian Shephard is Jessica's dog, Hope, I think her and Isaiah are destined to be best friends. It's a mutual affection.

This was after Hope had been chasing Isaiah around the room. Slowly they both finally laid down....

 Until they were both asleep. Awww.

Fooled Ya!

More pics from Christmas Eve.....

 Excavations.......

 Finally Norman Christmas. We had 30 family members with 10 missing and 14 of those were under age 11. Lots of food, fun and talking.

And the finale

We made it! We had Christmas in our new home. I sometimes wondered if we were going to make it but we did. Thanks to my son Jamie for constructing our beautiful home and being patient with me in all of my "wants" that weren't really in the budget. But we actually had our family Christmas in our new home and it was awesome. I also did something this year I have been thinking about for years now........I didn't wrap any of the kids presents. I hate wrapping all those presents and this year I got some really large red trash bags and put everything in those. I don't think the kids even noticed that their presents weren't wrapped. They just dug in and pulled stuff out. Fun times.

The next morning we had our annual Christmas breakfast.

I love doing Christmas with my family and hope we can continue our traditions for many, many years to come.

Christmas traditions part 3

One thing we as a family have done for years and years is have communion service on Christmas Eve at the church. Usually it is very private with families coming and going during the time alloted for communion but sometimes when Christmas Eve falls on Sunday like this year, we will have a candlelight communion service. This is such a very special time for us. It is a tradition that my children have remembered and are carrying on with future generations. Some of the kids are too young to appreciate the signficance of this event but someday they will look back and think on these very special times.

Christmas Traditions part 2

It would be a very long post with tons of pictures if I didn't split up the posts. Another tradition we have is the Christmas sacks give away on Christmas Sunday morning. After church everyone always takes family pictures in front of the beautiful Christmas decoration. We are no different, it just takes us longer to gather everyone together. Then we leave to take flowers to the grave sites of Gary's parents and mine. This year is was SOOOOOO cold so there were quick pictures and then we left. The wind was blowing so hard which made it feel even colder. Burrrrrr.

 This girl loves her JoJo.

 Evidenced by the big smooch on his cheek which thoroughly embarrassed him.