Christmas 2007 (Just a little late!)

Hello family and friends!

Wow! Christmas and New Years went by so fast! Where has the time gone? Well, I hope your holidays were great and that you got to spend lots of time together with family and friends! It seems like after the infamous "Oklahoma Ice Storm" our family has been going non-stop with Christmas, New Years, three birthdays, and one anniversary!

We had a terrific Christmas with Michael's family in Texas! We spent lots of quality time together, and we had so much fun! We played games, ate great food, laughed a lot, ate more great food, flew in the helicopter, fellowshipped with family and friends, took family pictures, baked Christmas cut-out cookies, played more fun games, and ate some yummy food (did I mention that one already?!). It was the perfect Christmas! My wonderful mother-in-law came up with a great idea for us adults to do this Christmas, and I thought it went over very well. Here is what she thought of: instead of all of the adults buying gifts for everyone this year, we each had to bring one gender related gift for a gift exchange. On Christmas Eve, after the kids went to bed, we played BINGO, and if you won, you got to pick a gift. You could take other people's gifts away from them, too, but I don't think anyone did that. We all liked the gifts we initially chose. Diane, what a super idea...that was the best!

In addition to having the gift exchange, my mother-in-law also decided that it would be very memorable for the adults to draw names and write a letter to the person whose name we drew. Now, she gave us all plenty of time to get our letter written, and, then, on Christmas Eve before we did our gift exchange, we sat in front of everyone and read our letters outloud. I must say, it was beautiful to hear all of the family members read their letters. That was so special!

Blake and Easton were beyond excited for "Santa" to come this Christmas! On Christmas Eve, they left cookies and milk outside for "Santa" and his reindeer, and, sure enough, when we looked outside on Christmas morning, the cookies had been eaten and the milk was finished, too! Well, the boys had so much fun opening and playing with their gifts from "Santa" and from the family, and we had fun watching them! They are truly two blessed little boys!

Thank you, Mike and Diane, for making Christmas 2007 so special. We had such a wonderful time!

After returning home from Texas, we had Christmas with my family! We ate a great dinner, and we opened presents. What a wonderful time we had, and thank you, Mom and Dad, for everything.