December 15th - December 22nd

December 15th - Happy birthday to me!
Year 34 has begun.  We drove down to Lancaster to worship on my birthday and had lunch at my folks' afterwards.  Lauren, Natalee, and I blew out our December candles to celebrate our birthdays.

Grandma Num made sugar cookies and frosting and had sprinkles for the kids to decorate.

No worries - he stuck his tongue on top of that sprinkle pile and ate 'em right up.

No sprinkles for Mia...

Grandma's new peg people nativity was a big hit with the little 3.

It is really cute...

December 16th -
We continued with our Jesse Tree study and enjoyed all the moments of evening Bible study together.

The older 2 kids took turns helping read the devotionals.

December 17th -

December 18th -

Cookie/treat platters for the offices at Mike's work.  We also sent 2 to the post office to the post master and the very nice desk clerk who were both helpful as we were sorting out a mess with the postal service.

December 19th -
This week was actually a hard week, tinged with sadness all the way through.  We mourned with Lauren and Lance through the miscarriage of their second pregnancy.  This is not the first time Mike and I have mourned the miscarriage of a niece or nephew, but we are older now, and these things seem to cut even deeper than they have in the past.  Life feels so very fragile.  There was nothing we could do but pray, and send all our love, but in the end I needed to lay eyes on my sister and hug her.  Mike rearranged his schedule and did some work in the evening, so that just Zayden and I could go over and take our love to Lauren and Theo.  The day we went over was also Lauren's 29th birthday.  We took crafts and the boys played hard and we solved none of the world's problems but I'm thankful Lauren let me come over and love her.

 We built a little snowman!

Back at home, Daddy was holding down the fort just fine with the other 4 kids.  The big kids were over the moon to get to help feed their little sister.

Bedtime that night...

December 20th -

December 21st - 

We drove to Lancaster for Christmas at Grammy and Papa's!

December 22nd - 

Since we were already down, we stayed over at Grandma Num and Papa's Saturday night.  We worshiped at LCC and then went to my Aunt Marcia's for my Grandpa's family Christmas.

My cousin Patricia with Evalynn...

Patricia brought us the sweetest, softest nightgown (LouLou).  She also brought a darling outfit that we haven't tried yet.

Nannie had birthday presents for Zayden and Natalee!  Zayden was so excited for new Mario sheets!  Natalee has played with her Playmobil diner everyday.  I didn't get a picture but Nannie even helped her put it all together.