Christmas with our kids (2010)

    part 2 -
    Everyone (including Analyse :-D) slept in the next morning. I had 'scheduled' a big breakfast for 10, but it ended up being served a little bit late. They survived. ;-p What was for breakfast? French toast, bacon, fried eggs, and a teeny bit of applesauce (I thought the jar in the fridge was fuller than it was 8-/).
    Before breakfast, at EVERY-bodies insistence, Benson called his friend Crystal and she came for breakfast and their 'real' Christmas stockings.
    No, I did not take a picture of their real Christmas stockings. Why not? Because all of them are not made yet. There were some real Christmas stockings hanging along the stairway railing, and some plastic grocery bags. The material I had recently picked up for Analyse and Kayla's Christmas stockings were in their bags, but I can NOT find where I had put the material for Cyndi's ... grumble, grumble, mutter.... ! My goal is to have them made before Feb. 1st!!! I might just buy new material for Cyndi's. I can always make her something else when the original material shows up. And then this summer after the arrival of our second grandchild, I'll make one for them too! I'll probably be making ones for new family members on a regular basis for a few years. I'm o-kay with that!!! o:->
    All four of our sons got Lego's in their stockings. Yes, they are all in their twenties. Their response to finding them proved that Lego's are not an age limited thing! They also got a couple of other items each. The adult girls got socks. Lots of socks! All kinds of solid colored socks. They too got a couple of other things each. Last week Crystal had called asking if we had an apple slicer she could borrow. Her 'stocking' contained an apple slicer. ;-) See, I do too pay attention! o:-p Oh, and Boo got a candy cane shaped raw hide thing, which he went right to work on! Which was funny, cuz usually he sniffs at them for about three days before he deems them chewable on. Maybe it was the red colored part the packaging described as chicken that made this one so good. And was he ever protective of it! Mercy!! I hope they have some more still in stock when Brian gets to Meijer's today!
    After that, Kayla had to leave for a bit for a family thing, Crystal had to go tend to some details, and Brian took Byron, Cyndi and Analyse to visit his folks. It had been several months since they had seen them.
    But there was also a second purpose behind the trip. Brian left "the kids" at their grand parents for a bit while he drove on into K-zoo and picked up Nate M. That evening we were hosting a dinner party for some of our "kids" friends, and Nate made the list!! It had been w-a-y to long since he had been here last!!!!!
    Brent's best friend Adam B. also came, as did Joel and Jeannie. Josh C. was going to, but then Brandon got called into work, and with Josh's condition, he's leery of going places sometimes... We missed you Josh!!! But Brandon, we totally get why you said yes to working! The rest of you whom were invited but didn't come, we wish you had! It was wonderful!!! NO DRAMA!!! TONS of laughter!! The way that Brian orchastrated the inexpensive gift exchange turned into hilarity! Oh my goodness!!!
   The dinner? We tried a new way of cooking the pork loin, which we aren't doing again. Not as moist as we like it, and it took way to long to bake (or maybe that was just our oven...). Mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn, leftover fluffy stuff. And they had their choice for dessert - there were three types of pie and three types of cake. And yes, they could sample all if they wanted too.
   All of the "kids" were sitting around the table playing a game Crystal had brought along when Brian and I deemed we needed to hit the sack. The benefit to having adult children! ;-)
    The following morning Brian and Brent had to work (they'd taken the day before off as a vacation day). Byron took Brandon shopping for his Christmas gift from them (they had drawn his name). Brandon wanted and ended up paying half of the price for an Under Armour (T) long sleeve shirt. He wanted it to wear under his uniform shirt when working the drive through window at work. Byron had waited to get it to make sure they got one that would fit.
   While they were gone, Cyndi started packing their stuff up and I started picking the house up. Between the two of us, we conquered the 'Christmas mess'!  A-n-d, I haven't yet stumbled upon something they left behind. Well, besides the mattresses and Analyse's chair... but that's going to be a different posting ;-).
    They needed to leave around noon due to Byron having to be to work by 5. Too short of a visit!! And yet, it was a wonderful visit!!!! Thank-you Lord!!!
    Here are some pictures of our sweetheart amongst some of the Christmas 'mess' ;-p

Yes, she is standing IN the magazine part of the 'breakfast in bed' table Brent and Kayla gave me. Silly girl! ;-p

Daddy's sleeping and she's playing with the pillow pal from great-grandma and grandpa 'honey'.

"Help me, I made this mess but now I can't get up" ;-p  The 'Bosco Sticks' box is proof that you can't always judge what's in the box. ;-p  And the soccer ball... her uncle Brandon couldn't find the right kind of potentially really noisy toy he wanted to get her, so he got a possibly destructive one instead. Chuckle, chuckle. And yes, she definitely already has good enough coordination to kick it!!! Her mommy deemed it was going to be an outside toy only!

Wearing grandpa's Kermit The Frog (T) shirt. Cute!!!

This concludes this edition of you having to view 'slides' (;-p) of our adorable grandchild. o;-p