Christmas from our point of view...

Pre-Christmas Preparations

We had the FNL (BBC CHURCH) teens to our house on Friday, December 4th, so we put our tree up earlier than our normal. We purchased a new tree from Macy's floor displays at the end of the last Christmas, so we were anxious to see how the tree fit our room. We really like the compact size of it, since our family fills the room already! After some work on the lights, we were able to say "its done"!

A new tree topper with the "crown" that I love!

Jesus is KING at our Christmas, and our crown ornament

is a regular feature. The bead angel below it was made

several years ago by my dear friend, Rose White, who

is now in heaven!

Another favorite ornament... one of a variety set of colors and shapes.

One of Al's favorite ornaments: a Hallmark pickup with a tree!

Sally offered to come help finish baking our cookies on Monday prior to the "event". She is a great cook and she learned some new techniques this week!

Christmas EVE fun...

One of the funny gifts we gave each grandkid this year was a chocolate bar labeled as a $million from a great candy maker. We were disappointed to notice the Santa after we purchased them... not to worry... photoshop to the rescue! We redid the cover with the grandparents and pups photo!

We had the family come on Christmas Eve this year, due to schedule conflicts on Christmas Day. Grandpa poses here with the three oldest granddaughters: Grace, Sally, G-pa, Pearl.

After a movie, we put the Wii Kart races on for awhile. Two of the boys were right in the middle of it! The others were across the room "driving" their carts!

Jesse and Reuben drive their Karts up close and personal.

Charles drives his Kart from the sofa, while Nathan watches the game.

One of the FUN things we did this year was make "slider" burger cookies. Even the teens enjoyed creating their own "slider". I got the recipe from the blog of my Scrap Girl friend, Angela Nausbaum earlier in the month. They were such a hit, we decided to take two dozen to the church for a dinner on Sunday! People adored them! Aren't they the cutest? Someone suggested we package them in containers, so we tried that too! Just too darling! AWWW!

Hope finished her "slider" in record time!

Anders puts the finishing touches on his cookie masterpiece!

Sally takes a "bite" of the slider!

A dozen "to go!"

Christmas was a tremendous blessing to us this year, because of the presence of our loved ones. Every grandchild was present with us on Christmas Eve... for the first time in several years. It was a blessing to spend time with each of them and to give them the gift of OUR PRESENCE for a day! God has been VERY GOOD to us!