The End of Christmas

Our last Christmas was with my Dad and Kay, and the extended family. We had a great weekend with Christmas on both Saturday and Sunday, and finished it off by celebrating the New Year with all the sisters & spouses (8 of us all together) at our house for the night. The best part was that Grandad & Grankay took the kids for the evening and had a "grandkids campout" at their house. We enjoyed getting to hang out until the wee hours of the night, playing games, blasting music, and eating too much, as we rang in the new year without children!

Grandad & Grankay with the girls---all in matching red!
Braden really enjoyed the chocolate cake at Christmas. I think he had three or four desserts that night. I could eat HIM for dessert I think. SO cute!
My sisters, Kylie, Cortni, and Cailee, before our big New Year's night began....

Some of the family gang hanging out after a huge yummy lunch. Our favorite thing to do is sit around and talk for hours....

And now, I'll finish my Christmas blogging with a list of "extra favorite things" about this holiday:

1) My children's time with their grandparents and great-grandparents. Both Kendyll and Carlie had multiple sleepovers with all six of their grandparents (our parents) and got to see all five of their great-grandparents for Christmas this year. I have always prayed for close relationships for our kids and their grandparents and this Christmas showed how much they love their Gammy, Papa Ron, Grandma, Pops, Grandad, Grankay, Grandmother, Maw Maw, Paw Paw, Grandmother, and Papa Roy. What a list that is for two little girls!!!

2) The joy I saw as my kids opened their presents. I have been harping on "not being greedy" and "remembering what Christmas is all about" probably to the point of being over the top, especially with Kendyll. But, watching her open each and every gift from family and being truly happy and thankful for what they picked out for her, and then seeing both Kendyll and Carlie hug and kiss each giver with a "thank you" was the sweetest thing. They are beyond blessed, and I'm glad to see that they realize that on some level. (even though there were plenty of comments still made like: "Do we have any more gifts to open?")

3) The time we've spent since Christmas talking about our blessings. Kendyll has been busy hand-writing thankyou's to each and every family member, and we have had the opportunity to sit down and really think through all that we received and how blessed we are for it. It has been so great to read her sweet thank-you's to her family (especially in her own "phonics spelling" kind of way).

4) Our new family love for Ghana and for Atsupuhi. The last Christmas present Kendyll opened from us was a stack of papers with a little girl's picture on the front. Atsupuhi is one week younger than Kendyll and lives around the world in Ghana, Africa. We have adopted her through Compassion International (thank you Candice for the idea!), and we plan to write her, send her pictures, and keep in touch with her family. It's Kendyll's first pen-pal, and she is obsessed with her! Grandad and Grankay got her a globe for Christmas that tells you information about any country around the world. Let's just say we know every fact there is to know about Ghana. It is my dream that Kendyll and Atsupuhi will meet someday....

5) Thinking about our holidays next year with little Abby Kate. Yes, that's right....if you've actually stuck with reading my blog this long, you just heard the official name of our baby girl. "Abby Kate" will be an added joy to our Christmas next year and I look so forward to the holidays with three little girls!! She already got a few pretty things for Christmas, and I can't wait to have her here to model them!

There's the end of Christmas blogging! There is always more to tell, and more pictures to post, but I've GOT to stop this!! :) On to the new year....