Christmas 2018

 

It doesn't seem possible that another Christmas is behind us already. Time just marches on without stopping for anyone or anything! About a week before Christmas, I started feeling just terrible rotten. I do have gallbladder surgery scheduled for the 28th of January, but we aren't sure it's going to help much. My "gallbladder" pain is not related to eating and seems to be more of an autoimmune flare. Sure enough, my last labs showed very low white counts again. Seems you can count on it....when I'm feeling rough, the counts will be down. I began to feel some better on Christmas Eve, but Rick came down with strep (second time this year) and all of the kids had head colds. Our Sunday worship was sparse and Rick wasn't feeling his best at all, God gave us of his sweet presence though as we opened our hearts to Him. The bright spot in the midst of all the sickness was Rick's parents being here for the holiday. We all enjoyed that so much! Here are a few pictures from our Christmas week. The girls worked hard to get time off and we planned ahead a good bit in order to make it a quiet relaxing time. As it turned out with all the sickness, the quiet and relaxing was necessary more than enjoyed.

 

 

Christmas morning breakfast.

 

 

Rick's parents got here very late, after Kaderick was asleep, so he spent several hours the next morning right here outside their door waiting for them to get up.

 

 

Quiet sleepy evenings spent visiting.

 

 

Christmas Eve breakfast

 

 

We did splurge one night with steak dinner and a sleigh ride.

 

 

 

These girls both worked Christmas evening and there were some very excited residents to have their two favorite girls on duty!

 
 
 

 

Kayla surprised us with some super cute Donald Trump cups.

 

 

Mini snuggling with her Christmas present.

 

 

We started a new tradition this year of reading through the book of Luke as a family. There are 25 chapters so it works out perfectly and by Christmas Day, you know again exactly why he came. Rick would ask a different family member to pray each night and along with their prayers to include a special thanks for something in that nights reading which had stood out to them and made them thankful. It was very interesting to hear what the children came up with. we had some very special times. We also did a lot of singing around the piano, although the voices began falling off one by one as sickness struck.

 

By the time we made it out to Greenleaf for Christmas there, my parents had come down with a virus and we were (and are) still recovering so this was the only picture I got from our celebrations there. Suffice to say, it was a very different Christmas, but sweet non the less and definitely one that will long live in our memories!