Christmas 2008

This year we had Christmas on the 21st with my family (minus Andy and Kristyn) and also got to celebrate my mother's birthday. It was fun. We opened gifts and enjoyed playing games after the kids went to bed. Then on Tuesday we headed to Jason's family in Michigan. I love southwest Michigan. I grew up in the south, which I enjoyed, but southwest Michigan is wonderful. I love going there, it is so peaceful! We had fun hanging out for a few days before Christmas was here so we enjoyed going tubing at Hayes Park, a park Jason use to play baseball at growing up. We were the only ones on the hill and it happened to be raining, but there had been enough snow that it didn't effect our tubing! The kids loved it! Emily and Kiley even by the end were going down by themselves. Pictures will come later as I now have a new computer, but I need to get internet access for it...sorry for the delay. 8-) We had a fun time with Wes and Sharon, and we treasured every moment. Please keep praying for Wes and Sharon as they keep battling the effects of his brain cancer. Praise God that the cancer has not returned, but the medicine and complications of the surgeries and so forth are still very difficult to adjust to. They are doing great and we know that God is using Wes for His glory! Below I thought I would share some of the kids favorite gifts of the season:

John was excited about a Knex Roller Coaster. We almost couldn't get it, but ended up getting the last one in the store. Jason and John are actually working on it right now! When he has finished the coaster look for the finished product. Maybe he will use his new digital camera that Grandpa and Grandma got him to record his progress. He loves it and it even allows him to add hats and funny faces to people. He thinks it is funny! As many of you guys know John is a huge Cubs fan like dad and mom and so GG and Papa got him his own baseball card collection and notebook with page protectors too! He can't wait to put the Cubs logo on the front. We found he has some really cool cards! Those are some of John's favorite things.

Emily for Christmas was so cute because she was asking for clothes, make-up and jewelry, yes, I know she is only 5...wait until she is a teenager is what most say...oh my! She got a few jewelry items and some lip gloss and a cute outfit from Grandma, she looked like a snow bunny. I can't wait to get a picture on here of her, she was so cute. But, some of her favorite things were a pedicure set from GG and Papa. I actually gave her a pedicure the next morning. Grandma and Grandpa replace her favorite doll with twin babies, which she loved! Uncle Eric and Aunt Elisabeth got the Emily and Kiley Barbie MP3 players so Mom and Dad went with that gift and found IDogs with IDog purses for them to listen to the music on instead of with earphones. So they can carry their purses and listen to music and dance whenever they want. I had never heard of an IDog, they are so cute! The dogs even asked to be feed if music has not been played for a while.

Kiley has fallen in love with horses so she was excited to get a horse and rider for Christmas. She also got the MP3 player and IDog. They are going to have fun with that.

Karli was excited for Christmas this year. This was the first one that she really was excited so it was extra cute! She has been playing with the twins barbie house so we found a really cute one just for her on sale, she was so excited! She also got her own baby doll and Hannah Montana barbie doll. She was so cute, she finally had her stuff!

Jason had a great idea this year, "Santa" left a message for the kids with the cookies that they left out. He said that they had to find the most important present of all and that he had whispered clues in Jason's ear. So after all the presents were opened Jason "passed on" the clues from "Santa". It lead to a box somewhere in the house. In the box was a note with John 3:16 on it. They had to look it up. It also had a story to go along with John 3:16. He read the story and had the kids figure out which present was the most special for Christmas. It was great to end on to refocus the attention back on the main person for the rest of the day. I think we will start doing it every Christmas. So don't forget even though Christmas is already past, what the most important gift to all of us is: Jesus!