What a great Christmas we and the kids had together! Their Father wanted to go to New Orleans to visit his family, so we took the kids with us to Nebraska to visit Randy's family.
Generous gifts of books and DVD's came in very handy on the 14 hour car ride. When we stopped in Kansas to eat lunch, we got to have our first "ball fight with snow" as Annie put it. The look on Charlie's face when I picked up some snow and tossed it at him was priceless. The initial look of irritation quickly turned to a mixture of surprise and delight.
Arriving at Randy's sister's house, the kids jumped out and ran into the snow. Not really dressed for this, Charlie soon came back crying because his feet were so cold. The snow was deep enough to fall into his boots, so he took his boots off, and well, that didn't work too well!
Randy took Marquel with him to pick up the flowers for his mom's birthday party. Marquel had taken note of Deb's nativity set, and spotted more figurines in the shop. She picked up a little dark skinned angel who was holding a heart out in her hands and asked if she could buy it for Deb. Then she reached up on a shelf for another one. Randy helped her get it down and realized that it was a mother and daughter, reaching their arms towards each other. She wanted to get that one for me. It was very touching to receive this special gift from my new "daughter".
Chip made us all laugh when he put himself in time out. I had scolded him for getting M&M's out of Bryce's candy dispenser. He followed me up the stairs, walked down the hall and sat down. When I realized what he was doing, we all had a good chuckle.
Getting ready to spend some time in the cold and snow, I told the kids to put on the layers of pants, shirts and socks that I had packed for them. They thought I was really crazy! But when they came in, they said they were glad because they had stayed warm.
Randy's sister is a grade school teacher, so Deb went to the school to look through the lost and found for boots and snow pants for the kids. They came back all outfitted and ready for hours in the cold. They looked so cute all bundled up. The kids went down the hill behind Deb's house on their saucers, then ran back up the steep hill, over and over and over. After 4 or 5 hours, Deb would coax them to come inside. What a treat this was for the kids.
They learned to play Mexican Train Dominoes, and Annie was the champion as she figured out the strategy really quickly. I thought to myself that the kids Dora Dominoes that I had bought them as a Christmas present might be a little boring after playing the real thing!
One night as we played dominoes, Charlie got tired and curled up on the couch. Randy reminded him to say his prayers, and 5 year old Charlie recited the Lord's prayer perfectly all by himself. Deb had tears running down her face by the time he finished.
Dear friends Mardi and Gerry had told the kids to ask the Guaradian Angels to go with us on our trip. Each night the kids asked God to send the angels to watch over them, and to be with everyone they knew, naming them one by one.
Mardi told the kids the Christmas story in an animated, entertaining way. Each time we passed a nativity set, the kids would comment on what was missing - the angels or the shephards or the rich men who brought presents. They thoroughly enjoyed retelling the story.
There were so many new experiences; "Grandma" Ehmen's 90th birthday party at the nursing home, Christmas with Randy's brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews and all their kids, Deb and friend Cec helping the girls with their workbooks, hiding eggs and hunting them with cousin Dianne, and Charlie got to drive cousin Jr.'s really BIG farm tractor! Everyone doted on them and had great fun. What wonderful family time the kids got to experience for the first time. We hope we gave them some good memories.
We have lots of new Angels to add to our list. Click here to see pictures
A HUGE thank you to all who helped "our kids" have a wonderful Christmas!
Until next time
Stephanie
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