"Wrapping Up" Christmas 2008

This past Saturday afternoon, we celebrated Christmas with our kids, or at least the ones that live in MN that were able to make it. Of course, Jessica and Christian are living here with us now, and Sarah and Brad came down from "up north". Ruth and Dan drove up from the twin cities area, but my son Joel said he was having trouble with the battery in his Jeep, and was afraid to try to drive it this far. His gifts are still under the tree. If he doesn't come to get them...I guess we'll be forced to use/spend them ourselves, and eat the contents of the basket from G & G, (including the much-sought-after "grandma buns" that are waiting for him in the freezer).
CJ got a really cool tool set from Sarah and Brad. He loves it, and has been "fixing" things and people ever since. He says he is a "workerstruction", which I believe means construction worker in Fouryearold. Here he is, sitting on the couch between Ruth's husband, Dan and Sarah's husband, Brad.

Molly received a messenger bag kit that you decorate yourself, with iron-ons and fabric paint. She really seemed to like that, and had it completely finished by Sunday afternoon.

Molly had been telling everyone that she wanted earrings for Christmas. She got earrings from us, and some from Jess on Christmas Eve, and more earrings from Sarah and even more from Ruth on Saturday. She should be set in the earring department for awhile!!

The other gift that CJ got from Uncle Brad and Auntie Sarah, was a Minnesota Wild sweatshirt. It's a bit big, so when he tried it on later, he told his mom that he didn't want to come down and show it to us, because he was afraid we would all laugh at him! She told us not to, so we tried our best not to snicker. He'll grow into it...eventually. (I'm not really sure what Ruth is pointing at here).

I ended up getting a few of the things that were on my list too. Sarah and Brad brought me a Shark cordless floor and carpet cleaner. It was not the exact one I had pictured here, but it works just great! I had also asked for the two Narnia dvd's. I got them. In fact, I got 2 copies of "Prince Caspian", (one from Jess and one from Ruth and Dan), and 3 copies of "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe"! Jessica, Sarah and Ruth each gave us one of those!! Apparently, they didn't compare notes to see what each other was getting, after they had all read my blog. That's okay, I had already opened the ones from Jess, so I may donate that one to church library or something. The one from Sarah and Brad is a 2 disc collector's set, so I'll probably keep that one. I took the two dvd's from Ruth and Dan back today, and got 2 more karaoke discs to add to our collection instead! They'll come in really handy on Tuesday night for the Youth Group's "Pre-New Year's Eve Party" at church.

After we finished exchanging gifts, we put the extra leaves in the table, and enjoyed a wonderful Christmas dinner of turkey, ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, red and green Jello, and scalloped corn. Sarah brought some yummy cookies for dessert too! So much for Weight Watcher's this week!

My daughter Jessica's corgi, "Bart", has been sleeping in his crate in the laundry room every night since they came to live with us. Sarah and Brad brought their lab/springer mix, "Buster" with them too, so we stacked the crates and made bunk beds for them. Here they are:

It was a real "three dog night", when you add to them our dog, "Jake", who is also a lab/springer mix. He thinks he's a people though, so he sleeps upstairs in Molly's bed with her. Here they are:

Ruth and Dan only came up for the day, so they didn't bring their 2 dogs. That was probably a good thing. I suppose we could have found room in the laundry room for a couple more crates, but their two pups are quite young, and may not have liked being away from their humans all night.

We all had a great Christmas here on the farm! Even if it did seem a bit like the place had "gone to the dogs"! Happy New Year!