Colorado Christmas

A week covered with so many good things...they could only be from the Lord.

A LITTLE HISTORY: Robert and Richard became friends at the U of A 20 years ago. Robert was a tall, nice, quiet guy. They met at church and then ended up in business classes together. When Richard and I dated, Robert sometimes hung out with us. It wasn't until a few months into the friendship that Richard learned Robert had a sweetheart who went to school at Baylor. After college Richard was a groomsman in Robert and Heidi's wedding and I got to attend too. This is where I first met Heidi as she included me in all the happenings of the Edmond, OK, event. I won't ever forget her kindness to me, an unplanned guest at her wedding.

Robert was a groomsman in our wedding too, in 1992. One year later Richard called Robert when we got pregnant with Ryan. Robert called a few months later with the same news. We both had boys. I called Heidi when I got pregnant the second time. Heidi called back about 6 months later. Lauren and Emily arrived later that year. We had Erin in 1997, they were taking a break. Heidi called a year and a half later and Hallie was born in 1999.


We were sure we were finished having babies for awhile, but they had Tessie three years later (2001). Our Sheridan arrived 2 years later (2003). And, now we were both really done.

Over the years we've kept in touch, exchanged Christmas cards, met at Razorback games, Ryan and Jacob played against each other in baseball, and Emily played volleyball in our town...but we haven't ever had both of our families together until last week.

OH MY! Twelve of us living in the same house.. for 5 days, still liking each other at the end of the trip, now that's amazing. Tonight, two days later, they are skype-ing in the back of the house with their new friends.

Because we left from Grandma's house on the 26th, it was an 18 hour L.O.N.G. trip. We stopped for the night in Dumas, TX, and slept like rocks. We also stopped in New Mexico to stretch and visit a volcano. We finally arrived in South Fork, CO, around 3pm on the 28th.

The rest is history and made the 2010 TOP TEN lists of everyone in our family as one of our favorite things of the year in one of our new favorite places...

Christmas with family - part 3

It's my 40th Christmas morning celebrating in my parent's home. My kids love to wake up and have a delicious monkey bread breakfast (Sheridan now helps make it), open stockings, take pictures in front of the tree and then get into the presents. It's a comfortable family time and I'm glad my children are growing up in such a loving environment. Because we were taking our kids to Colorado for their main Christmas present, they were especially excited to open several gifts from Grandma and Grandpa.

I do have the most generous parents and they love all their grandchildren with the same giving spirit I grew up with. I know I wasn't grateful enough, so I'm thankful my kids recognize the gift of having loving grandparents on both sides of our family.





Counting blessings is easy when surrounded by family celebrating Christ's birth. SO much to be thankful for.

Christmas with family - part 2

Christmas Eve brought Richard's family to Clarksville. We're so happy to host the fun bunch we call relatives for the second year. We decided to stray from a traditional meal and host a FAMILY FIESTA! Yeah, it took us a week to come up with a fun name...and we started preparing Mexican food for 18! We had a friend make us tamales (mmmmmm!), I made sour cream chicken enchiladas, salsa, corn dip, and fajita chicken. We munched on chips & cheese dip and covered our plates! It was fun to fix and eat! We also had red velvet cupcakes to celebrate Jesus' birthday as well as lots of different candies, cookies and covered pretzel rods!

I didn't get nearly enough good pics of the adults...seems like everytime Annelise (the youngest of the group) was being held, the camera was pointed her way. She's certainly a cutie!

Christmas with family - part 1

We did something this Christmas we've never done...we planned a Christmas trip, leaving the state on the 26th. We planned to meet our dear friends, also with 4 children, at their family's home in Wolf Creek, CO, and let our kids experience the slopes for the first time. SO, our private family tree time was different as there weren't any presents....until the last 12 hours. We couldn't resist the anticipation, and the excitement of putting presents under the tree right before bed on Wednesday.

We opened our stockings...filled with love notes from each member of the family, and then we opened the surprise gifts. Ryan also gave me a gift that made us all chuckle.

I can't wait to compose the collections of the love notes from the past 10 years. Notes that used to say things like "i love you mom. you are cool." Now say the most poignant things from my teenagers. Where the coloring used to be the highlight of the note, now the words are so precious to both Richard and I. Love notes erase all bad feelings, regrets from arguments over the year and personality conflicts.Words are free and yet we seldom take the time to tell those closest to us how we feel about them. To hear the brother and sisters letters to one another...it's something I hope they don't ever forget. DEFINITELY: my favorite thing we do all year.

Thankful

Thankful is the best word to describe how I feel about Erin having some sweet girlfriends to do life with. She invited several girls over during the first days of Christmas break to decorate cookies, go caroling, watch a movie and just hang out. Some had conflicts with family events, but even a few 8th grade girls filled our house with laughter and silliness for a couple hours on a cold Tuesday afternoon.

Angels we have heard on high

I love being the director of the children's choir. And I love Christmas musical night. It doesn't make any difference to me that I'm completely frazzled on Wednesday nights after every practice...or that my voice is scratchy every Thursday because I had to talk for every second of our practices on Wednesday nights to keep everyone's attention.

And, it doesn't matter that I got THE. WORST. HEADACHE. from the stress in my neck the day after the musical.

What matters is that God shows up in a big way when children sing about His miracles, His work, and His love. It's truly a place for miracles at a Christmas program, sung by children, singing God-songs.

My prayer is that these children will NEVER forget the musical and it's simple message of His Love coming down at Christmas.

God has blessed me with the dearest friend in Becky. This year, in particular, we have been confidants and prayer partners. What a sweet thing it is to have a good friend who loves and seeks the Lord, who is growing in their faith, who encourages me to be stronger in my faith.