Author: Joyce

2018

When the kids were little, they slept under Oma and Opa’s kitchen table on Christmas Eve. Once they watched the Nutcracker, they tried to catch Santa, and often woke up early because some adult needed to get into the kitchen.

Of course they all outgrew that, but we decided to pretend one year. There is no way the kids could all sleep under the table anymore.

After celebrating at Oma’s and Opa’s, we enjoyed Christmas at our house.

The Grinch has almost always been a favorite character of Mark’s. This year, Mark and Adrian got to meet him.

2013

The neighbors gave the kids matching sweatshirts for Christmas. The kids had been working on their alpaca farm since Mark was 12. A few of the sweatshirts are still worn.
Adrian reading the Christmas story.
The dolls’ Christmas
This year’s tree
Andrea and Mark loved to see who could keep their face in the snow the longest.

2012 The Year of the Tops and Lots of Sledding

I am a firm believer that it is almost never too cold to go outside. So many days, we would go outside, even if only for 5 minutes so we could all get fresh air. My children played hard and often I had to tell them that time was up before they were ready to come inside.

The kids pulled Megan most of the time, but somehow, she persuaded them that she would pull them. She was so proud of herself for being able to move them a little.

We built the kids a sledding hill off our back porch. Usually, the steps had a lot more snow, but Adrian still went down these happily. Audrey decided to make her own ramp. It was short, but a great hill.

We had two or three tops that we played with for days. All of the kids, except for Megan learned how to get them spinning. We would have contests to see who could get them spinning the longest or the farthest. There were lots of giggles and silliness!

Oma made all the kids pajamas. Megan’s turned out very large, but she loved her oversized jammies and she stayed warm all winter.