Christmas Memories--Part 1

I downloaded over 600 pictures of Christmas memories. Don't panic--I decided not to post them all. I will share just a few to give my readers an idea of how our time was spent. Before we left for the north land, we had our family Christmas here.

Julianna gets her stocking down.

Doyle gets a brain teaser puzzle.

Samuel was excited to get some new kleats.

One of Lydia's gifts was a new dress-up outfit.

Here is Superman to the rescue.

I received a new marble slab-something I had been wanting for a long time. I have already used it for fudge and it turned out so yummy.

We left early Friday morning to head up north. We stayed all night in mid Georgia and then went to my relatives in northern Kentucky. I am very close to my aunt, uncle, cousins, and their families and can not imagine Christmas without this visit.
Here the kids hold gifts from Erma and Marvin.

We also held a concert in Connersville, Indiana. This was a new experience for our family. The kids played their instruments and we sang together. My dad pastored this church for 10 years and it was a real privilege to go back and visit with friends I had not seen in 22 years.

When we are together with my cousin's kids, they always put on a play. Tim, David, and I find this interesting since we used to do the same thing for our parents. This year Julianna and Brittany (the oldest 2 of the group) did an outstanding job of ordering the other kids around and making sure the Christmas story was told with new meaning.

We celebrated Uncle Marvin's 70th birthday. His family did a great job of making sure he was remembered with style.

Aunt Erma opens the chocolate shells I brought her.

Tim and David doing what we do a lot of at Erma and Marvin's house-eating and visiting.

We all went to the Creation Museum one night for their "Walk through Bethlehem" experience. It was so cold that night. Of course we had to take the kids' pictures again in front of a dinosaur.

Here they pose with the soldier and shepherd.

Freezing outside. Patty and Kelly are behind Erma and Marvin. They faired better in the outside elements than the Bozone bunch. When we went from 70 degree weather to 3 degrees in a couple of days, the Bozone bodies had a little trouble adjusting.

Joseph thought that a dinosaur decorated up with Christmas lights was pretty cool.

We said "good-bye" and headed for my mom's house the Tuesday morning before Christmas. If I had had any idea what kind of trip we were going to have, I would have stayed another night. It usually takes 4 hours to travel from Northern Kentucky to my mom's house in Northern Indiana. The weather was brutal-it took us almost 8 hours to get to our destination. I thought we might not make it. I cried, prayed, and did not dare go to sleep. The freezing rain, dark night, and wrecks everywhere made one nervous mama. After we crossed the Ohio river at 3 miles per hour, they closed it down for 7 hours. I never have been so glad to see the lights of home.