End Of The Year

We ended our year quietly with a small party for my first grandchild - Reagan. Six years ago today I spent the day and night at the hospital with my daughter in labor. It was a beautiful day and my first grandchild was born. I was there to see her born and I was so very thankful. Happy Sixth Birthday, Reagan. 

Not a great picture I got with my phone tonight, but she looks so happy. 

I found myself this evening going back and looking at the pictures I took when she was born and decided to post one of her that I took at the hospital. 

Christmas - A Little Late

We had a very nice Christmas, but I really was tired by the time it was over - so much shopping and wrapping and planning. It just seemed to never end. I meant to post a few pictures from Christmas day, but just didn't get around to it so I am finally doing it now. I really took very few pictures so will not be posting as many as I usually do. Most years I take hundreds, but this year only and few and then I just enjoyed being with family. I think everyone had a nice day and the kids were all happy with their gifts and have been playing with all their things for the past few days - so nice. 

Today Evelyn came over to visit and a package had arrived for her from her mom. She was thrilled to get some play makeup and played and played with it - she even asked me to take some pictures of her and that is quite unusual. She usually tries to hide from my camera or makes faces when I am pointing the camera her way. Not today. She wanted pictures taken so I got some of her playing and putting on her makeup. 

I also took a couple of Claire and Sophia playing together for a few minutes. 

The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas - Day 24

Today our special thing was to go to the candlelight service at church. It is a beautiful service and our entire family goes every year -- well, Joey and his family did not. I love sitting in church surrounded by family and singing carols. It was a beautiful evening and I am blessed. 

I took this picture of my grandson, Luke, holding his candle in church - so sweet. 

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas. 

The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas - Day 23

Today our special thing was to go to the Christmas cantata, come home and have snacks while opening gifts the kids got from church. It may actually be a stretch to call this our special thing, but that is it. It has been a long week and a busy one and I decided this would have to be it for today and the kids seemed happy. They are always happy with snacks and gifts and the cantata was one of my favorites. So, this was fine with the kids as a special thing and we just pretty much relaxed the rest of the day - well, I did have some things to finish up. 

The short video clip is not of the cantata, but the end of the service as everyone was leaving. My son is the pianist for the church and I grabbed this as church ended. He did a wonderful job on the cantata today as did everyone else and I am blessed by all the help he gave us this season - he played all the music for the program the kids did last week and he is a wonderful big brother to so many.

This is very short as people were walking in front of me as they left church. 

The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas - Day 22

Our special thing today was to have all the family over early this evening -- just food and visiting. This is a lot of fun for my younger kids as they know there will be lots of food and especially sweets. Zola made several batches of fudge and they all turned out great. So, we just visited and ate and the kids ran around and played. I love seeing all the cousins playing with their aunts and each other and having fun - family is so important. 

I didn't take one picture tonight which is odd for me. So, just posting a few random pics from the season. We are coming to the end of our 24 days and it actually seems to have gone by quickly this year. We have really enjoyed doing this and I guess this will be a tradition for us as long as the kids want to do it, and I imagine that will be for several more years. I actually enjoy doing it, myself. I love to hear the kids ask what the special thing for the day will be. Sometimes I have something planned and sometimes they help think of something. It means that we will do something together every single day - even if it is small. I hope one day they remember these as special times. 

The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas - Day 21

Today our special thing was to take a carriage ride. This was a lot of fun and the kids loved it. We had to ride in two different carriages as there were too many of us for one. After the ride I got the kids ice cream and I definitely think today was a success. It was a nice ending to our day.

We finally got the video of Sarah singing her solo in church off my camera and on here. This is one of the reasons I love my church - everybody can have a chance - it doesn't matter that you have Down syndrome. 

The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas - Day 20

Today didn't go as planned and I was busy much of the day. Sophia had some problems and ended up at the pediatrician's office. Her dental work for tomorrow had to be canceled and we are seeing a neurologist instead. We will be seeing him tomorrow. The hospital will not reschedule her appointment until she is cleared by neurology. 

With everything going on today I was at a loss this afternoon - thinking what we could do as our special thing. I asked some of the kids and Bethany said she would like to draw and cut out paper ornaments for the tree in the kitchen and then let the other kids color them and hang them on the tree. Sounded good to me. So, she got out paper and pencil and scissors and started drawing ornaments and the kids got crayons and colored them. They put twine on them and hung them on our tree in the kitchen. They actually look really nice and the kids were very proud of themselves. I think Bethany was really happy at the way they turned out. Thank goodness she thought of this or we might have missed our day 20 special thing. Only 4 more days to go. 

The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas - Day 19

Today I had a lot going on and didn't know if we would actually get a special thing done. I was gone several hours getting Sophia's pre-op done. It took a lot longer than I planned. She is having dental work done on Friday at the hospital. So, by the time I got home I was thinking today would be kind of a flop. But, then the kids asked if they could bring down one more bucket of Christmas books from the attic, and so that was our special thing - a bucket of Christmas books out of the attic. We have so many books that I had decided not to bring all of them down this year, but a lot of our favorites ended up somewhere in the attic so we thought one more bucket might bring down a few more favorites. It did. So, it was small, but it counts. Now the kids are loving having more books to read. 

These are just a few of the books we have out for Christmas. We have collected for so long - I can't even remember when we started buying a few new books each Christmas. Now we have so many that I buy very few, unless I see a very interesting looking one. I think this year we bought two new ones and both of the books were actually old books that were out of print. We probably have three or four more large buckets up in the attic we have not brought down and probably won't. 

The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas - Day 18

Today I had so much to do to try to finish up before Christmas. I shopped and wrapped and wrapped. We didn't even do our special thing until evening as I was so busy, but we did at least do something. Today our special thing was to play Christmas bingo. I had bought the new bingo game and gotten some popcorn and so they played and had popcorn. It was small, but they still enjoyed. We are almost at the end of our 24 days and we have enjoyed doing this again. I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas season and enjoying time together with family and friends. We have tried to slow down and spend as much time together as possible. 

I only have one picture from tonight and the kids playing Christmas bingo. I was going to post a clip of the solo that Sarah sang in church Sunday as someone asked if I would, but I could not seem to get it mailed from my phone to Bill. He is the one that gets it to the blog. I will try again tomorrow. 

The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas - Day 17

Today was a rather relaxing day even though I had to do a little shopping. We read a lot and didn't really do very much. In the afternoon we did our special thing - decorating cookies. It was easy, fun and the kids always like to decorate cookies. I know Bella seems to be in a lot of the pictures, but she was having so much fun I just kept taking her picture. She sure loved today's special thing.