Christmas 2008 in Review...

We had Christmas at my parents on the 27th. I have two sisters and both their families were there. Corbin and Priscilla, being the youngest, always get the job of handing out gifts.

We have a name drawing and aside from that, enjoyed massive amounts of food. It was a good day and we did oh-so-much laughing! There's few things on this earth nicer than spending time with family.

We had Christmas with the Krahn side on the 26th. I think altogether there's about 40 of us. Balderdash is the favored game and I am amazed at how creative everyone is at making up definitions for words. If you need a good laugh, get a group and play this game!!

More food! I'm sure we all gained tons of weight but who's looking at the scales!! If only we could find a way to ship some of it to our soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan I'm sure they'd appreciate it. Course there's lots of visiting going on and talk of how we might never all be together again with the "kids" all getting older and going their seperate ways. We took a large family picture just in case it's awhile before it happens again.

The younger children exchange names but those over 15 are in a "White Elephant Exchange". As you can see everyone is laughing over Dad's flower basket he opened. That's okay though because if you don't like what you get you get to trade with someone else, even if they don't want, and can only trade with those that have opened gifts before you. The favored gift this year was some .22 shells with jerky that everyone seemed to be trading for. Rebekah ended up with it and I'd guess Amos is one happy husband!!

We had our own Christmas with our children on the 25th. I think this is the first year the kids haven't talked us into opening them at least by the 23rd!! We had a large brunch, opened a few gifts, and did this and that the rest of the day which included more Balderdash, and watching Isaac's new trapping DVD's. (so interesting for the rest of us:) !! ) Oh, the kids turned down the idea of a nice meat and potatoes supper and instead all voted for M&K pizzas. Fine with me. It was easy and they are so good.

Examining new gifts.

Daniel was so good. He just watched everyone as if he knew exactly what was going on but eventually cashed out.

One thing I really enjoy about Christmas is getting together with family to read the Christmas story and sing some carols. I know there's people suffering all over the world but I am also so thankful for how God continues to bless us even when we don't deserve it. I think everyone cut down on gift giving, but you know, it doesn't really matter. What really matters is why we get together in the first place - to honor God and Jesus for all he has done for us. If Jesus hadn't left his home in heaven to come to earth to ultimately die for us sinful people, we probably wouldn't even care to see our families. We might not even know where they are. As we go into the new year, don't ever forget the blessings and mercy and grace of God. That's what it's all about.