I'll be home, for Christmas...you can count on me...

 ...YES!!!  Jonny is coming home for Christmas!!!!  He'll only be here for less than a week, travel from Germany eats up that vacation time, but YAY!!!!  I cannot wait to see my boy!  

This is what I did yesterday...nothing screams "Christmas" like these cookies.  I didn't eat one, but lest you think me virtuous, I did eat lots of cheddar cheese popcorn last night while watching a show with the girls.   Full disclosure:  I did break a piece off of a broken one, before they were frosted, and oh dear, so good!  I already know they're good, and one wouldn't be enough for me, so I just admire them.  

Why I didn't take pictures of Wulf, Tennyson, and Grant helping frost cookies, I'll never know.  Grant loved it most, he kept saying he was a lucky boy.   He's got such a huge heart.  Wulf, oh he does too.  They're loud and crazy, and they wack each other with the empty wrapping paper rolls, but they are so sweet.  I have (had!) two lovely Christmas snow globes.  The other day, Achilles learned not to touch them, he just sat on the stool and looked at them....well, oops, I didn't ask the boys yesterday not to touch, and CRASH, one fell from poor Wulf's hands, he was stunned, shocked...I was glad no one got hurt, and that Sonja cleaned it up for me.  

It's so nice having the grandkids here.  They play in the empty Amazon and Target boxes more than with the toys.  Sam took Wulf and Grant outside for a while, and let them have a turn shooting the b.b. gun.  I had dinner simmering away in the crockpot: a nice chuck roast from the piece of cow we bought last spring, from the farm across the street from Benjamin's house.  I put carrots and potato chunks in, and two packets of gravy mix, with onion powder, a little salt, and lots of pepper.  Then, right when it was ready, some pop and fresh croissants, and mmm, dinner!  

Saturday:  I didn't get enough pictures, but this is what we did:  our church is not only our local church, but it's the conference center, gathering place, for lots of other churches...and we decided that since we have such a snowy winter, it would be good to make use of the property to keep the kids and teenagers busy, so a ski hill/sledding hill is being built, complete with tow ropes to get back up the hill!  We had a ribbon cutting ceremony on Saturday for the ski lodge, even though it's not totally finished. There's a HUGE deck overlooking the hill, two huge saunas, two hot tubs, and the lodge will have a stone fireplace, bathrooms, and a coffee bar that serves inside and out.  

Paul and Mariel...

Paul and Emily...

Lovely settings with charcuterie appetizers...

This is the ski lodge, the doors are genius, summertime it can be all open air.

Elise with her cocoa, and big sister Anya...:)

Emily and Evelyn were serving cocoa and coffee, Samuel was doing air soft shooting with the older kids, Sonja, Charlotte, Camille, and Kathryn were doing crafts with kids, like beading...Mariel and Margaret had a gingerbread house making set up for the kids, I ended up joining them.  That's where the fun is, with the kids.:)

The day ended with an amazing feast, of some sort of roast beef in gravy, potatoes, green beans, a roll, all served to the table, so nice.  We had music and we had encouragement from God's word, and we had fun and fellowship...then cheesecake with a tart berry sauce to end...the youth stayed longer and played games and had pizza...we went home, because Paul still had to pack...I brought him to the airport yesterday morning, he's in Atlanta for the week.

Rhys...she saw the hats in Target, and promptly took her own cute pink one off and threw it in the back of the cart...

Every hat I picked up, asked her if she wanted to wear it, she nodded yes.

She really liked this one.

Achilles enjoying the Christmas stuff...

Rhys, chilling...

This is the gingerbread house that Aaron, Molly,  and Margaret made so many years ago...

The other day...Paul giving Rhys a ride...

He brought me flowers!

Grandson Declan...so stinkin' cute.

Grace took this one of me, reading to Grant and Achilles, and that's Ruth...dressed for the weather, ha...

This fine morning, I have to get moving...Camille has to have an MRI on her knee, the one which dislocated...it has popped back out a few times, not completely, as she wears a knee brace continuously...her thighs are getting stronger with all of her therapy and exercising, but that knee is just extremely wobbly...so off we go, to a little city half hour from here...we have a few errands after, then home, ahhh home.  

I always stay up too late when Paul's gone traveling.  Last night I finished my book, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn"at around midnight, ugh.  I woke up at six, and contemplated going back to sleep and not getting up to see Miss Charlotte Claire out the door, but decided to be a good mom...

Ah well...I haven't done much this morning, just put away some clean dishes, washed a few, and added hot soapy water to the soaking crockpot...yesterday I vacuumed and steam mopped the floors, but with dogs and cats, ugh, they have to be done again today.  Indoor dogs, sleeping on the couches, have to wash the covers all the time, but they are such good companions, and so sweet and so good with the kids.  Sunny HAS to lick their faces just once when they first come in the door, then she leaves them alone...until one gets in the high chair, she plants herself close by, and the kids learn they can drop food, and it's hilarious when she gobbles it up...we try to keep an eye on this, as Labradors are piggy-pies, and don't need table scraps.    If one of the kids walks around with a cookie, she'll take notice, and maybe sneak a lick, she won't just snatch the cookie, but if they set it down, or put it right in her face with an open hand...well, she's game.  Suri is much more relaxed, probably because she's lazier than the day is long.   

Ah well....bye to the blog and the comfy chair...off I go...