Christmas 2010

Overview of our 2010 Christmas Celebrations.

~The first weekend in December,  Mom & Dad went to Branson with Mr. & Mrs. Busenitz where they enjoyed "Silver Dollar City" and the "Wissmann Christmas" show.  Us kids were kind of jealous; but glad that they were able to have that needed time away.

::Silver Dollar City::

::Wissmann Christmas Show::

The guys even posed for Dad to get a picture. ;-)

~Our "whole family" celebrations started off with our Church Christmas Program on the 17th.  Our theme was "The Light Of the World", and all of the music selections and scripture readings were based on Jesus coming as the light; ending with the challenge to "be" shining lights in this dark world.

We had a great crew setting up tables, ironing tablecloths, decorating, etc.

We also had a great kitchen crew preparing the delicious food.

The decorations were beautiful with all of the lights - and we even had real christmas trees. :-)

We enjoyed a light meal (complete with background music) before our program.

Ashley played an arrangement of 'The First Noel'.

Kara, Dave, Ben & Jesse accompanying 'Wonderful Counselor'

Matthew did some of the scripture readings.

The young ladies sang 'The Light of the World'.

~The girls (along with a couple of Kara's music students) also had the opportunity to do their christmas recital at a nearby nursing home.

Emily

Kara & Janel P.

Ashley, Bethany & Kara

~We spent three days in Meade with Mom's family on Christmas weekend.

The family gathered for a Christmas story and carols

The siblings gave Grandpa & Grandma a GPS.

Grandma used to run a Napa store and had accumulated a large collection cars and trucks.  So, this year for gifts she let each of the younger grandsons (and great-grandson), who had never received a Napa truck or car, pick one out.

Grandma also inherited a very large amount of collectors' dolls and Precious Moments figurings from her sister, Ruby, who passed away earlier last year.  She graciously allowed each of us granddaughters to pick one out as our gift.

Uncle Bill even found his favorite doll. ;-D

Great-Grandma time :-)

Braxton thought Daddy's candy-cane should be his!

John loves sitting on Grandma's lap :-)

The Isaac's love to play games, so that was the main activity of our time together (aside from eating;-).

Dominoes

Risk

Dutch Blitz

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Laura had a sonogram done a couple of weeks before Christmas, and for a new twist Justin found out what the gender was and waited to tell Laura on Christmas morning.  They came over that evening (right after we had returned from Meade) with this bag of M&M's and told us we had to count them to find out!  There were more BLUE M&M's, so...... it's a BOY!!!

~Monday morning, we had our immediate family christmas.  We were delighted to have Justin, Laura & Braxton spend the "whole" day with us this year. :-)

Singing carols together

::Gift Exchange::

We had our business logo programed for our embroidery machine to put on Dad's shirts.

Trevor & Matthew made Mom a really neat napkin/salt & pepper shaker holder.

John got a shirt just like Braxton's... now they could easily pass for brothers (rather than uncle & nephew)!

Our Christmas dinner... Papa Murphy's Pizza and Cherry Pie!

Playing a long game of 'Cities & Knights'. We won't mention who the meanest team was!! But for the record they DIDN'T win!!!!

John and Braxton watching Kara make salsa for supper

~We celebrated with Dad's family on New Years weekend.

We somehow didn't get very many pictures, but here's the few we got.

Some of the out-of-town family was staying at Grandma's house and ended up without water most of the weekend - due to her waterline breaking.  So, our guys (along with the help of a few cousins & uncles) spent most of their time working to fix it.

We had freezing cold temperatures, but they faithfully stuck with it!

There were many bitter/sweet moments, as this was our first Christmas without Grandpa.  He was sorely missed at the head of the family circle, but it was very precious to know that he was enjoying the very presence of the One whose birth we were celebrating.

Time of sharing and praising the Lord together before our gift exchange.

The older couples & the cousins each exchange names for the gift giving.

Mom & Dad had Uncle Craig & Aunt Esther for the gift exchange, so they couldn't resist giving Craig some duct-tape - this is a family joke.  He wasn't there though due to illness, so Esther opened it (then rewrapped it for Craig to open).  She got a good kick out of it... we're sure he did too! ;-)

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“…Whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."

~ Luke 1:78, 79 ~