Merry Christmas!

To those of you who faithfully read and leave comments on this humble little blog, or just stalk it... :-)

MERRY CHRISTMAS from our family to yours!

May the approaching new year bring great blessing and an ever-growing awareness of God's relentless love and grace, made possible through Jesus, who died on the cross for our sins. When we trust in Him as our Savior we have an unshakeable hope!

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What a whirlwind weekend, but such precious time with family! I am reminded once again of what a blessing it is to live near the majority of my relatives.

We spent Christmas Eve with my mother-in-law and a few of her friends, Skyped Pete's brother, Wojtek, in BELGIUM and got some face to face time via the webcam. We were excited to congratulate him on his recent engagement to Ula. Here is a picture of the two of them from when they visited the States earlier this year in April.

We're so happy to see them making this commitment.

On Christmas Day we enjoyed a semi-relaxing morning. The kids were obviously still hyped up from the festivities of the night before and awoke early. But, I put the Baked French toast dish I had prepared the night before in the oven, along with a quick and easy Vegetable Frittata, and then the kids opened their gifts while things were cooking.

So far the kids have enjoyed much of the same things, so the LEGOS were a big hit as a combined gift.

Don't you just love the raised eyebrow?! Makes him look so much like his daddy. :-)

Pete and I notoriously pick out our own Christmas gifts, usually before Christmas, and this year was no exception. We went for practical gifts and purchased a 3 quart yogurt maker and 8 cup food processor while the deals were hot, and have wasted no time in trying them out.

At lunchtime we headed to Mom and Dad's for the rest of the day, savoring one of our family's favorite meals:

Gene Wenger's hamloaf

gourmet potatoes

succatash (baby lima's and sweet corn)

Mom's homemade cresent rolls

cranberry sauce

local homegrown celery

applesauce &

lemon sponge pie

The kids burned off some energy outside while the littlest one caught a short nap, and then the building excitement could be contained no longer!

Adam got so warm that he ran around bare-chested for the rest of the day.

Just relaxing and being our usual silly selves.

We are staying home today to decompress and just breathe. :-)

This coming week we'll celebrate Natalia's 6th birthday on Wednesday and my 35th on Saturday. (My niece Morgan turns 7, and we are anticipating a new niece or nephew in the next few weeks too--maybe before the new year! Surely we can squeeze a few more birthdays into this month, right?!) A few more family dinners and time with friends...lots of fun in store before Christmas break ends!