A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Well, we apologize for the delay in updating our blog, but our schedule has been FULL since we posted last. My parents flew in to Fresno on Thursday the 14th to spend a week with us for Christmas. The kids were so excited to see Grandma and Grandpa! Here's Grandpa, Audrey, and Isaac with their Rudolph noses! We enjoyed just relaxing with Grandma and Grandpa for most of the time. The kids did their annual sugar cookie making and decorating with them (as seen in the pic below), and we made a trip to Visalia on that Saturday to see both my mom's parents and my dad's parents. Well, my parents were scheduled to fly home on Thursday, the 21st...however, since their flight was Fresno-Denver-Wichita, the flight was canceled due to the snowstorm in Denver. They managed to get rescheduled with new tickets for Christmas Eve morning; however, they showed up at the airport Sunday only to find out their plane had mechanical problems and had been grounded at the last airport. So back we went to the airport to pick up Grandma and Grandpa again! The reaction from the kids was quite funny. When I told Audrey, "Guess what, we get to pick up Grandma and Grandpa before church tonight (Christmas Eve service)!"...she threw back her head and said with a sigh, "When is their plane ever going to leave?" Isaac however ran straight to my parents when they walked in the room yelling, "Yeah! I haven't seen you for months of years!" It was great to have my parents here for the extra four days, even though it did get hectic at times. And it was really neat to go to Christmas Eve service together. All in all, the kids loved spending so much time with Grandpa and Grandma, as well as Uncle Ben and Aunt Alli for the holidays! Well, we successfully dropped my parents off at their hotel next to the airport on Christmas Eve night (paid for by the airline) and their flight finally left Christmas morning at 7:30 a.m. Christmas Day was spent with Randy's mom and brother. We had a wonderful day relaxing, eating some great food, and just enjoying the holiday! One of the fun things we did that day was to put together a foam Nativity set that Arlene had bought (pictured at right). Here's some pictures to show some of the other highlights from the past month. Randy and the kids got to meet Charlotte Wiens for the first time when Aaron and Christa came "home" to Fresno for Christmas. Audrey couldn't get enough of holding her. Our family enjoyed walking down Christmas Tree Lane with friends!Violet continues to enjoy walking assisted by either someone's hands or moving things (like this shopping cart at Grandma's).Audrey hosted a tea party at Grandma Arlene's with 3 friends, Lindsey and Alyssa McNeely and Bethany Ogawa, a couple days after Christmas. She used her tea set, complete with tiny golden silverware, placecards, and homemade tablecloth, napkins and apron that Grandma got her for Christmas. Grandma provided hats and gloves for all the little girls too!

Finally we enjoyed a wonderful New Years' Eve with a few other families at a get-together hosted by Rod and Julie McNeely! Randy with John Schlesselman. Chris, Nanita, Chase and Carson Jones Julie McNeely (center) making New Year's fritters with some help from Evelyn and Morgan Schlesselman (and yup, there's Nanita again)! We counted down with the kids at 9 p.m. (East Coast New Year) and did poppers and noise makers. Randy helped Isaac with one (above) and Audrey tried to do her own but held it wrong and got a spark on her palm...it just startled her though. For all the kiddos that were still awake at 10 p.m., we started a movie after they cleaned up and got some pajamas on. (L-R Morgan Schlesselman, Lindsey McNeely, Isaac, Tyler Schlesselman, Alyssa McNeely, and Audrey) They only stayed like that about 10 minutes and then spread themselves all over the couches and floor with blankets...HOWEVER...who knew that at 11:45 when we stopped playing poker (I won the whole pot of plastic animals, by the way) and turned on the TV to watch the ball drop, all 6 of the kids would still be awake to watch with us! ...barely.

Well, Happy New Year to all. We hope that this year you may learn to love God and your family even more, be content with all God has given you, and hug people more often! Oh...and don't forget to reduce, reuse, recycle!!!