Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Christmas memories...

Time sure flies! We spent a week and a day downstate. We had planned on coming home on Saturday, but heard about a storm brewing in mid-Michigan. I'm glad we stayed another day, as that was the day we went to downtown Detroit. On Christmas Eve we opened the majority of our gifts as we had our church services going on for the few days during Christmas, actually, they ran from the weekend through Christmas and were held in Minneappolis, so we were hearing them at our Detroit church on the phone patch. It was really very special to us as we could hear all of our dear preachers speak from all over the U.S. Christmas meetings are always a special part of our holiday. So, we opened gifts with our family and Andy's mom, and my father-in-law Christmas eve, and had a nice supper with lots of food and bakery. Christmas morning we went to church, then hurried home to finish our dinner, as we had my sisters and families at Vanessa and Andy's. My two nieces with their children and hubby's. Holly and Chad and Beth and Joe, (they came from Washington state. I wish I had a picture of them. I did get Holly's picture. We had 11 kids and 14 adults for Christmas dinner. John's dad came down with us, he is 87 years old. Vanessa and I worked for two days cooking and cleaning, and shopping. I brought a turkey I got for a Christmas gift from the Northridge Pines ( my work). We made dressing, cranberries, had ham, potatoes, gravy, brocolli salad, pumpkin pie, and rolls. Janice brought two pans of cheezy potatoes and lots of bakery. Everyone brought dishes and cookies to share. The dinner was delicious. We opened gifts after dinner and sang Christmas songs. The kids played dress-up. It was sad that some of the kids were getting over the flu and Cade (Holly's 2 yr. old son) had to go to the E.R. and be admitted to the hospital early in the evening with an ear infection that spread to the mastoid bone.

We shopped alot after Christmas. We went to IKEA for a day and got lots of nice things. I wish I had a truck to haul back some furniture. We ate Swedish meatballs and Swedish coffee and desserts there.

I got to Target, JoAnnes Fabric (of course), Kohls, Sears (I bought a Lands end down filled coat). It is so much fun to shop, as we don't have any of these store here in the Copper Country. We have a small mall with a Penny's and a Wallmart, and Shopko. Not much else. My kids get a little annoyed with my shopping binges and the fact that I want to shop till I drop. I get teased alot by the guys--son in law and brother in laws about how they don't see me much as I'm gone shopping. I had to stalk up on food buys from Costco of course, and get my healthy foods and supplements from Whole Foods or Trader Joes, you know!!

Got over to see my sister Kathi and Frank's new place, (they're in a condo now.) Then we went to Janice's for dinner on Saturday night. We had some great visits, but sure had the kids to keep things a little noisy and hectic.

The weather was great for this time of year. Quite mild, in fact. We did have a brown Christmas though. It snowed and melted a couple of times while there. Sure was a fun trip and we all kept healthy, thanks to God. Many blessings in our lives!

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