Fortunately, none of our family felt the need to be up an a really early hour to open presents. I got up and took those lovely cinnamon rolls out to thaw and rise for breakfast. When Raelyn and Emelia woke up Katelyn got them downstairs with the Marx family. No one comes up to open gifts until we get the family picture on the stairs. This year someone was clever and got a picture of me trying to get the stairs picture. This is probably the first year I am anywhere near being in this picture!
Katelyn then took Raelyn out to see that Santa and the reindeer enjoyed their treats.
Time to open presents. This year Hayden and Bailey helped pass out gifts. Here are a few of my favorite moments.
A year ago Bailey fell in love with my M&M pajama pants. In February when Claude and I went to Las Vegas we visited the M&M store where I got my pair of M&M pajama pants. They had them again and we got me a new pair to replace the first pair. We also got this pair for Bailey. Great fun to give these to her.
We got Andie some self-inking stamps with things that teachers have to write a billion times. Hayden let her stamp the side of his face with one.
This was a fun gift for each of the Mini's. Street signs with their names on it.
Raelyn got this fun mat with roads and buildings for Princesses. She also got a box with 5 or 6 Princess dolls to play with on the mat. The mat was rolled out and stayed on the living room floor until the Ropers left for Michigan.
This was my gift to Claude. There are two young girls in Oldham County, Kentucky who started this project with the support of their parents. They make these 'Be Kind' signs and ask that you make a donation to some organization to receive the sign. You find these signs in yards all over Oldham County. Claude noticed them on one of our visits to the Marx family who live in Oldham County. He really liked them. I researched and found out the story behind them, then worked to get one for Claude. The Marx family picked it up at Thanksgiving time and brought it to me and secreted it in my sewing room closet. Claude was so happy to get it for Christmas. It now is in our front yard by our mail box.
Katelyn found an apron on Pinterest that she really loved. It was made out of a man's shirt. She wanted me to make her one. I saved the pattern and asked Claude to give me one of his shirts. Then I realized this might be something others in our family would like. Andie always wears an apron when she cooks. So Claude gave me enough shirts for Nissa, Andie, Katelyn, Aubrey and Bailey. I contributed a shirt of mine for Raelyn. I made all of these for Christmas presents this year. The first picture is the first one I made. The second picture is the girls opening their aprons on Christmas morning.
This was a very fun gift. Andie and the Mini's gave Michael a treasure hunt for his gift. They had clues on paper and he had to read the clue and go to the place indicated in the clue to find the next clue. The gift was a scavenger hunt in Louisville as a family.
Claude got me a beautiful silver turtle bracelet. His choice of wrapping paper gave me chuckles. We eat at Jimmy John's frequently. This is the wrapper from my sandwich. I always order a Slim 3 with Cheese. When we are finished I always go refill my beverage to take with me and Claude disposes of the trash. He must of saved this wrapper from my sandwich to wrap my gift in. Such fun.
Part of the fun of Christmas day is thanking the people who gave you gifts. In the digital age, you can see they enjoyed the items you so thoughtfully gave. We got Nissa a stone for her garden and a new garden flag that has a map of Michigan with their last name on it.
Jake gave us a Star Wars Christmas card with money in it for a date to see the new Star Wars movie. We have enjoyed Star Wars since the very first one (which is really the 4th one) came out when our kids were little. We stood in line around the theater the entire length of the previous movie to get tickets and seats for our family. This was a welcome and very thoughtful gift.
After opening the gifts, the cinnamon rolls were out of the oven and we had a sweet breakfast together. Thank you Coyne's.
Claude took Katelyn and Drew downstairs. He had a project he created for them. It is a shoe shelf to go close to their front door. They put their shoes in it before going into their apartment and later their home. Katelyn got to pick out whether to paint it or stain it. Katelyn has chosen stain. Claude has backing for it as well. Now he can finish the project.
I got a turtle blanket. I also purchase reindeer ears for each of our grand and great grandmonsters. I wanted a picture of my little dears in my turtle blanket. Raelyn was crying. This is fine. It is just a moment in time.
In the afternoon I went into Georgetown and picked up Papa. He would spend the afternoon with us watching all those little people play. Papa enjoyed watching the family but by the next day he didn't even remember he came unless I reminded him while we talked. We really are filling only his immediate moments. How important that is.
While I took Papa back to the nursing home, Claude and Emelia had another moment. So thankful for other people taking pictures. These are so sweet.
In the evening we did 'the puzzle'. This was a tradition with my mother when I was a child. I really like to get a challenging puzzle. This year I didn't do that. I picked a puzzle with a picture because Michael likes to do that type of a puzzle and the puzzle had only 550 pieces. I really like 1000 or more pieces. But I didn't want the entire rest of our visit to be spent at the table making a puzzle. We set to work and finished this puzzle in one evening. Yeah us!
It was a full, family Christmas day.
Now the fun really begins.
Monday, December 23rd, the Ropers left Grand Haven headed to Kentucky. They would visit until January 1st. We were very much looking forward to visiting with them. Added to that we would have the entire Marx family and pieces of their family throughout that same time. Lots of grandmonster time!
In the morning I went to the Coyne's to pick up frozen homemade cinnamon rolls. These would be used for breakfast on Christmas morning. This is such a sweet venture. Amy Coyne was my counselor when I was Primary president. They have four children. The oldest three are Olivia with her twin brothers Max and Eli. They were learning to bake and decided to make the little venture at selling their homemade cinnamon rolls. They named this venture MOE (Max, Olivia and Eli). How cute is that?! I brought those 16 rolls home and anxiously awaited Christmas morning.
Received messages from Andie as they were getting things done for their arrival the next day. Seems our Hayden got a haircut. He is such a handsome young man.
I sent these pictures of the Christmas trees with their lights on inside the house to Katelyn as they drove. They were to get Raelyn excited about coming to our home. The first tree is our big Christmas tree in the living room, the second tree is my Mother's ceramic tree that Papa bought her, the third tree is the little kids tree in the basement and the last tree is one made of pine cones that sits on the piano in the basement. Don't you just love lights at Christmas?
The Ropers would arrive in the afternoon. Claude had a big pot of homemade chili for dinner to nourish them after their long journey. Emelia slept the entire drive. They only stopped once and made it here in record time. The girls were happy to be out of the car and explore. Raelyn loves being outside. She also loved singing to the Baby Jesus in the nativity. This is just a very sweet moment.
Emelia is crawling now and we weren't sure what would need to be moved for the girls to have fun. I think we only cleared off this coffee table. That is amazing. In this picture the girls are playing with the gingerbread family. My Mother painted these and gave them to me years ago. I have another set that was hers on the piano in my basement. Good toy for little hands.
The girls were fascinated with the big tree. We have ornaments from all over the world on this tree so it is a fun tree to explore. They were both very gentle with it. I did put only ornaments that wouldn't break on the bottom when I decorated it so that little fingers could touch and not get hurt. It makes me happy when the tree is enjoyed this much.
When it started getting dark, Claude took Raelyn around the house with him to turn on lights outside. There are four places to do this and Raelyn seemed to enjoy every minute of turning on lights.
At one point we found our little nugget resting. This is a rare occasion and when it happens its happens quickly. She is snuggling with Katelyn in this picture.
Claude had a lovely moment with Emelia. She crawled over to the sofa and they talked back and forth as she would reach out to try and grab something to pull herself up. I have a sweet video of them during this interchange. He does loves his grandmonsters so very much.
Tuesday, December 24th was Christmas Eve. Lots to do on this day. The package did arrive with Michael's gift from Andie. I was able to get in to visit Papa in the morning. I managed to see him every day even with company. This first picture is Drew sitting outside while Raelyn plays. The chalk drawings will remain on my front porch till they weather away. Emelia is in the second picture playing with two old pots that belonged to my Gramma Fisch, my Mother's mother.
When I got home we set to making a cake for Christmas dessert. Claude, Raelyn and I all collaborated to get this done. This is a pudding cake and I make it in a bundt pan. After it is cooled I just sprinkle powdered sugar on the top instead of putting icing on the cake. I use a chocolate cake mix and an instant banana pudding recipe. I learned that if I use the large instant banana pudding instead of a small instant banana pudding it makes an even moister cake. So very good. It was a treat letting Raelyn help me crack the 4 eggs needed for the cake. She would whack them on the side of the mixing bowl, open them up and pour a bit into the bowl. Then she would crush the rest of the shell with her hand. Not bad for almost 4 years old. I did find a bit of shell in one slice of the cake that I ate. So funny.
It wasn't long before the Marx family arrived and got some Emelia snuggles. This is Michael, Hayden and Bailey holding Emelia. The amusing thing to me about this interaction is how the circle of 'littles' is just that...a circle. When Claude and I married, Lynette and Kayla, Claude's sisters, were the 'little' girls. They were like 9 and 10 years old. Then Claude and I had children and our three were the 'little' ones. Next my kids grew up and they had kids and Hayden and Bailey were the 'little' ones. Now Nissa's kids have kids and they are the 'little kids'. It will just keep on going and that is good. It is fun for a family to have the 'little' ones so they are a well-rounded family.
The Roper's started a family tradition of opening a box on Christmas Eve. This box has new pajamas, a DVD and a book. Katelyn bought the box in this picture that they will now use every year. After Christmas, she and Claude painted it red and green. Claude was assigned to get big letter R's and attach to the sides. He has found them and painted them white and attached them to the box. I am assigned to buy fabric and make some kind of a covering for the box so the presents are hid inside. I haven't accomplished that yet.
One of my gifts to Raelyn and Emelia was pajamas made out of flannel. Since the Mini's were going to be with us one Christmas Eve, I purchased them each a pair of pajamas and wrapped them to open along with the Roper kids. Here are the pajamas for Raelyn (purple) and Emelia (pink).
Then it was time to get ready for Santa and the reindeer. That means baking and decorating cookies. I simply purchased a sugar cookie mix that I could roll out. The kids cut the cookies. Then I had vanilla icing and we iced the cookies and put decorations on them. Thought it best to keep it simple with Raelyn helping this year. Wanted her to have success and a good time with her cousins.
After icing and decorating the cookies a plate was prepared for Santa with a small glass of milk. Then a plate with carrots for the reindeer. We introduced Raelyn to our tradition with Bailey all of her life. How nice to pass this tradition on. Bailey is now old enough to know she should help the little ones believe the Christmas magic. It was fun for her to share this with Raelyn.
We finished the evening teaching Emelia about the musical clock.
Off to get some sleep for a great Christmas day tomorrow.
So...my last post was December 18th. Today is January 18th. To say I am a little behind is, well, it's ridiculous. I believe I will just start right in and post away, pausing when I am tired or need to go sit with Papa, taking a break when it feels right.
December 19th I had my annual wellness check with Dr. Lyon. This is a requirement of old age (Medicare). I would not do these if it weren't for that requirement. I went to this appointment at 1:15 in the afternoon fasting so that all blood tests taken would get the best reading. And, I passed with flying colors on all blood tests. Yippee!! I get to keep taking my same dosage of blood pressure medication. But everything seems to be in good working order. I did get a referral to a podiatrist. More on that later.
At 2pm that day, Signature Health Care was hosting their annual Christmas party for the residents. I hurried to be late for that. They have a wonderful man with a great real beard that plays Santa for the residents every year. A local business donates a bag of gifts for each resident. They have refreshments and cram every resident who can get out of their beds into the dining room with one or two of their relatives. They sing Christmas songs and have a lovely time. Papa was really unsure of what in the world was going on and why he was there. I was able to fill him in when I got there and he even tried to sing along with the music a time or two. It is so very hard when you don't hear and you miss any explanations and what others say to you. But he had a nice time and we went back to his room for a while to visit when it was over.
Also on this date we also received a picture of our Raelyn in her glasses. She got them on December 10th. I just think they fit her perfectly. The first picture is when she first got her glasses and the second picture is the one received on December 19th.
Saturday, December 21st, the Tyler's hosted their family Christmas gathering at their home. It took several attempts to get everybody looking at the camera, but this great picture was finally achieved. This is all of Nissa and Todd's children and grandchildren. I love this picture of all their family.
We had a special choir practice this day in preparation for Sunday's Christmas Sacrament Meeting program. We also received two packages from Amazon. Claude and I had recently commented that all the packages we ordered had arrived and we didn't need to worry about that anymore. Then we heard from Katelyn and she was having her Amazon packages sent to our home so they would haven't have to pack them. This is a clever and wise choice on her part. Then we heard from Andie and she was having Michael's gift sent by Amazon to our home. So, we were still watching for Amazon packages to be delivered. The arrival of these two packages meant we now were only waiting for Andie's.
Sunday was the Christmas program at the Church. It turned our really well. We had some concerns. It seems with Christmas falling in the middle of the week everyone left on Friday for family things in other parts of the United States. This was the smallest group of people for a Christmas choir I have seen since we moved to Kentucky 15 years ago. But it was really a nice program. I followed that by visiting Papa and facilitating our Self-reliance group. Good Sunday.
Now I will begin another post that has Christmas in it. It could be very long...
