I Love My Family


This weekend we had a lot of family time and we loved every minute of it.?? In total, Jim and I have five Christmases each year.?? 1.?? With our children?? 2.?? With my parents and siblings and nieces and nephews.?? 3.?? With everyone from number 2 and my grandmother, aunts, uncles and cousins.?? 4.?? With my FIL and MIL and 5.?? With my MILs family

Saturday we had Christmas (1) with our kids.?? :)?? I had plans on making a nice Christmas dinner for us this year but Jim said he really really wanted Jimmy Dean sausage with sage for dinner so I went the breakfast for dinner route instead.?? We had eggs, blueberry pancakes, hashbrown casserole, and sausage.?? I made a lemon meringue for dessert and it was so good.?? Good lemon meringue recipes are to come by but mom found one I love last year.

Last night we celebrated Christmas 3 leaving 2, 4 and 5 for later this week.?? :)?? Check out this food list from last night (and this is just off the top of my head):?? Roast, Ham, Turkey, Dressing, Mashed Potatoes, Spiced Yams, Green Bean Casserole, Cranberry Relish, Fruit Salad, Romaine Salad, Crescent Rolls, Olives (Black and Green), Deviled Eggs, Cheese Ball and Crackers, Chocolate Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Pecan Pie, McKinnely Pie, Bannana Pudding, Pineapple Cheesecake, Buckeyes, Fudge, Fruit Cake, Baby Ruth Bars, and Grammy ordered Spiced Peaches from Georgia and Dewars Candy from Bakersfield.?? Those two things, along with the Peppermint Bark (I LOVE Peppermint Bark) – were the only three store bought items on the menu – everything else was home made.?? My family knows how to have a party LOL.?? :)?? Am I forgetting stuff?

Uncle Dale and Aunt Karen came in from Apple Valley, CA for Christmas and Aunt Karen said she was very surprised when she saw Tori because Tori looks so much tinier in person than she does on my blog.?? I keep hearing this from people and am making a point to note it because someday when I look at the pictures I want to remember that they were not representative of her diminuitive size.

As I sat there just enjoying my family last night, I was overwhelmed with how much love I have for each one of them.???? We are not perfect people.?? We have had struggles just like every other family.?? But we love one another well.?? In adversity, in triumph, and well…in stupidity too hee hee (we all have stupid moments don’t we?)?? See note at end of this about??the word “stupid”??:).?? Every member is priceless and precious.???? We have been so lucky too because God keeps gifting our family with more and more treasures both in babies and in marriage.?? This was Rob and Cat’s second married Christmas and Cat is an absolute gift.?? I adore her and so do all of our children.?? She is such a kid magnet.?? Next year, we get Michelle for keeps and we are anxious for that as well.?? Michelle is such a great match for Dusty.???? She is the wind beneath his wings quite literally – she is like a little hurricane all by herself.?? Cracks me up.?? If you want a job done, just get Michelle on it.?? :)?? :)?? Michelle and I speak the same language so I get quite a kick out of her.??

The kids have so much fun that they all start crying when they have to leave the party.?? Promises are made that they will soon be reunited later in the week but to no avail – they just keep on cryin’.?? ?? We are having two slumber parties this year.?? One at Sweetie’s and one at Grandma’s so that will keep the kids happy.?? I like to stay the night at my mom’s on the eve to the eve because we have a traditional german dinner on Christmas Eve and those krautnettle balls take forever to roll so it is a family project that morning.?? Last year, Sweetie got sick so Michelle and Jodi and I rolled them.?? Good times…good times.?? ๐Ÿ™‚

I know I am going on about details no one but me cares about so I’ll end this now.?? Going to eat left over’s at Aunt Beck’s today.?? Life is good.?? ๐Ÿ™‚

Note:?? Jodi and I have a little dispute going on over a conversation we both had with Karsyn over the word stupid.?? I think Jodi is much more at fault for the final outcome than I.?? I’ll let you judge.

A while back, Jodi and the kids were over.?? Jodi was talking to me about something and as she left the room she used the word stupid.?? Karsyn then looked at me and said “I can’t say that word until I am older“.?? (ROFL!)

Oh really??? So I then say, “Well I say stupid but we use that word about things not about people.”?? (Okay “usually” just about things but I didn’t need to give Karsyn that much detail right? ๐Ÿ˜‰

Recently Karsyn blended both her mama’s words and mine into a final conclusion.?? She is now telling people:

I can call PEOPLE stupid when I am older“.?? Hee hee.?? I think this is entirely Jodi’s fault.?? I think I was pretty clear about what I said.?? ๐Ÿ™‚ ๐Ÿ™‚


6 responses to “I Love My Family”

  1. I am totally cracking up over this whole blog! There is so much love in that family that people just watching from the sidelines get covered with the overflow! You do indeed have a family that loves well!
    I can just see you all standing around making krautnettle balls…

    And here is my take on the whole STUPID thing ๐Ÿ™‚ You are both at fault! hee hee hee… you could have told her that its a word that no one should really say…not kids…not adults. However, that does not mean that I never say it. I am just the queen of do as I say…
    I love you all!!!!

  2. i wish i was there. i wouldn’t even like krautnettle balls but i would help you roll them just because i could, if i were there. ๐Ÿ™‚

  3. Oh how I love to drink my morning coffee and read your blog… ๐Ÿ˜‰ I love Tori’s pics and I love your stories! Love you and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

  4. Don’t you just absolutely love those pictures of Tori?! Her little grin and even the glint in her eyes were just totally captured here – just precious!!! And I would agree, I love our family too and thank the Lord for each of them. I think people are amazed and maybe even a little disbelieving that not only do we spend so much time together as a group…but we actually choose to do so! It was pretty funny at Disneyland when as a whole group we went from ride to ride! We seriously kept saying to each other that if anyone wanted to go off on their own it is okay, but then we all would move on together to the next adventure. What a fun memory and treasure we have to be family and best friends!!!! God is definetely the glue that keeps us together and we thank Him beyond measure for designing “family” to represent His desire in relationship with us. What a Creator!

    Lovin’ you as always,

    Aunt Beck

  5. I was showing pictures of our family Christmases at Aunt Becky’s house and it was funny to see people’s reaction. It was, “oh that must be chaos, can we come?” ! It the most fun chaos I have all year!

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