End of the Year with the Johnsons

After Christmas in Hermiston, we went up to Ephrata for a few days to celebration with Bryan's family.Not surprisingly, it was a good time!

The kids were delighted to open presents again!

Shannon and Mitchell love their new instruments, and each play two at a time.

Shan also did some interpretive dance to the tunes from her new books.

Dave received a .22. Look out stray cats!

Avery is something of a shutterbug (aka camera thief)!

There was lots of cousin playtime, making necklaces,

and building Legos. Legos we now have in abundance!

The traditional fondue feast/glutton fest.

The Johnson gals at Vicki's birthday Open House. Surprise!

Vicki turned 65 and Bryan baked a cake to commemorate the occasion.

The whole crew. A grand finish to 2013!

Christmas in Hermiston

We started our Christmas holiday with snow, which lasted all of the morning. Just long enough to build a snowman!

We hosted Christmas at our place this year with family beginning to arrive on Monday night and staying through Thursday afternoon. It was a lovely time.

There were stories,

and puzzles,

a Christmas Eve service,

visiting,

stockings,

laughter and knife envy,

sweet presents,

a desired firesuit,

blankets,

popcorn and the fixings,

calendars and laughter,

legos galore,

Mitchell's new bike,

Christmas dinner in the garage,

Bryan's folks joined us,

copying Grampa,

fun family time,

smiles,

and wonderful times.
We enjoyed the days with family and feel very blessed.
Merry Christmas 2013!

Preschool Christmas Party

Mitchell's class had a birthday party for Jesus on Thursday, which involved a short nativity play, in which Mitch was a silent shepherd. He did sing, though!

Bryan covered my class so I could come to the party. It was darling.

After their performance, we got to decorate cookies and have some milk together.

My favorite part of the party was Mitchell's unprompted kiss on my cheek. It was dear! Such a sweet little shepherd!

Silent Night(s)

We had an early Christmas gift this weekend: one child!

Obviously this doesn't mean that we love them unequally, just that we long for sleep. And our wish for 2 nights of uninterrupted sleep, followed by 2 mornings of late rising, was granted. Shannon went to Ephrata. We stayed home. Ahhhh . . .

Mitch and Mom had a date night to a Christmas concert, which was lovely.

There was some Christmas cookie decorating with friends

and an impish elf.

Also the church Christmas play. Mitch paid such close attention . . .

Evidence that he did sing!

Shannon had a great time with her grandparents, too.

They dined on ribs together, collected eggs from friends' chickens,

and read a LOT of books!
We were happy to have her home with us again and the kids didn't even bicker for nearly 30 minutes!
Maybe next Christmas we'll get to sleep again . . .

It's Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas . . .

We spent the weekend getting festive around here. We got a tree, visited Santa, went on a journey to Bethlehem (where the Romans were quite scary!) and put up decorations.

Shannon thinks the tree is full of toys. She's very cat-like in her attitude towards it. If it doesn't topple over, I'll be happy! In less than 1 hour, she broke two decorations!

Mitch loved decorating the tree. He saw it lit and declared it "perfect". Then he wanted to decorate again.

Here it is in all its glory!

Our yule logs blazing make everything feel cozier, even in single digit temperatures!

Advent wreath is all set up, too. We did the Advent candle lighting in church today and managed just to light the candles and nothing else. It was a relief.

Happy kids! It's going to be a memorable Christmas!

Thanksgiving

We enjoyed our Thanksgiving holiday in Ephrata with lots of family this year.

There was a stop or two at the Allstots, one of which included hot chocolate in a special mug!

Mitch and Great Papa investigating the backyard's treasures.

Aunt Phyllis came north. It's always so great to see her, and way too short.

Some of the R.E. Allstots being coerced to pose.

Dinner was with the Johnsons (and LaVines, and Adams and Hochstedler famililes). It was a FULL house!

I promised Dave that this would be captioned "A couple of turkeys". And so it is.

Looking down the table pre-feast. There were 21 of us and another on the way!

Friday morning brought a light dusting of snow and some serious snow-play plans from these 3.

Misty is always a crowd pleaser and she is obliging when carrots and apples are provided.The best part of this photo was hearing the chattering of the kids punctuated by the giggles of Grandpa Johnson.

There was some major playing!

Our trip was really nice. There were some flu bugs passed around, but there was also lots of family time, good food, and even a night of child-freedom. Hard to believe we are now into Advent season! We truly have so much for which to give thanks.