This year we celebrated Christmas Day with Casey's side of the family, and we had a nice, relaxing family day. We started our morning with cinnamon rolls and opening stockings...
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Peter's Lego-filled stocking:
Lego erasers, pencil box, mini Lego set
and a K'nex Jimmie Johnson car |
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Crossword puzzle book, mini Lego Friends set,
nail polish and a hat for Miriam |
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School spirit headband, Dutch Blitz card game,
nail polish and lotion for Esther |
We went to church with Casey's parents and enjoyed their service, which included the children's Christmas program. Then we spent the day at their house eating goodies and a yummy ham dinner, opening gifts, playing outside, doing crafts, playing games, and relaxing.
One activity that consumed much of our time was untangling the huge wad of yarn that came with Esther's knitting machine that she got from us for Christmas. It was in a huge tangle when it came out of the package, and Casey, his dad, Jeff and I all spend a lot of time working on untangling it and getting it back into a ball. It was funny to see those guys get so into it and be absolutely determined that it WAS going to be done before the end of the day.
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| Near the start of the untangling process... |
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| Grandma and her girls |
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| Buddies! |
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| These 2 love Uncle Nick! |
The kids each opened 1 gift from Grandpa and Grandma first.
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Esther got a lot of yarn to use for finger knitting
and with her knitting machine, and a fuzzy warm robe! |
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Peter got an erector set which can
make 10 different things. |
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Miriam got a decorate-your-own-headband kit,
a scratch art fashion design kit, and an outfit for her doll. |
Then the kids were told that they each had another gift to open. They waited on the couch while Grandma and Daddy brought the gifts upstairs...
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| Making some guesses as to what's inside those big packages! |
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| New sleds for everyone! |
Of course they all ran to put on their winter gear and try out the new sleds. There is just a small hill in Casey's parents' yard, but they had fun anyway!
When we came back in, everyone wanted to try out their other new gifts.
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Esther was excited because she had new yarn to use with
her knitting machine and didn't have to wait for the
untangling process to be completed on the original yarn. |
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| Yes, the untangling was still going on... |
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FINALLY finished and in a ball!
Thumbs up for the persistence of these guys! |
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| Esther and Grandma working on some scratch art. |
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Cassie and her new Light Bright.
Nothing like the Light Bright of our childhood! |
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The finished product of the knitting machine's
first run--a beautiful scarf! |
We are thankful for the blessing of our families, and that we could spend time with both of them celebrating Christmas this week. It's always hard to believe when Christmas is over after all the planning and anticipation. Now we look forward to the New Year and the excitement and blessings that await us in 2014!
