family christmas party, 2018

 Yesterday was our family Christmas party.  Same party as every Christmas.

The food was delicious, the company easy-going. 

 Joe's mom is in the red shirt--it was nice she was there with us.

 There were gifts.

 Heidi's little baby is still in the hospital, but getting much better.   The sisters helped open her Christmas gifts.  That little one was interested in her baby sister's jewelry box.

 (There was a lot of this too:)

 This made us laugh--three people stuffed against the arm of the couch while the dog takes up half of it:

 This is a jacket with a pocket to carry his cat.  The cat wasn't here, but the little dog was. She was happy enough to try it out.

Anyway, I wish I'd taken more pictures, but that's ok.

More Christmas tonight.

Love, Mom

preschool program

 A bunch of us made it to the Preschool Christmas Program, and it was very sweet. 

She's enjoying Christmas, even made it to Santa--cautious, but willing.

At preschool they made little nativity sets using a shoe box and decorated wooden pegs.   After school she showed it to Heidi and talked about the characters.   The angel had wings and she flew that one around and told us it was a vampire.

Heidi said, "They had vampires in Bethlehem!  Wow, Good work, E."

 The next morning she overheard her playing and apparently one of the characters was a mermaid, and there were also two Baby Jesus.

Interesting.

(I love kids.)

Anyway, onward to Christmas,

Love, Grandma

hopeful

This little girl has held her own all week, and today her doctors said they see improvement. 

All week we've been glad for holding steady.  RSV can be serious trouble, and for her it was.

Even if it's only a little improvement, we are relieved and encouraged.

So much love, Sweetheart,

Love, Grandma and Grandpa and Everybody

the trees

 So this was a couple weeks ago when John and Dannell's Christmas tree went over, water everywhere, glass breaking, huge, disappointing mess.

John's 1987 Minnesota Twins World Series ornament broke, but I found another one on ebay.

Dan said he was going to sell his to John.

Funny.

Anyway, they moved on from that disaster, and then this:

Last night Alicia posted hilarious pictures of their tree.

They cut it themselves up at a Christmas Tree farm, but it never would take any water.

None.

Well, here they are, kids jumping off the couch to cause needles to rain from the tree, just from the mere vibration their jumping would cause.

 They took the whole thing down, decorations removed, lights removed.

I thought it was a little sad, but it was a very pretty tree at first.

 But then this--

They bought a second tree, and decorated it all over again.

Heidi and I were giggling about this today--this one will probably last until the end of January or longer.  Maybe until Valentine's Day.  We could use a laugh this week.

Onward.

Glad for ridiculous problems.

Love, Mom, aka Grandma, aka Val

the weekend

 Some kids slept over because it was their parents company Christmas party.

So we had a party of our own here, very fun.

 They had energy.

This is their very favorite.

These girls played American Girl Dolls for a long time upstairs.   At bedtime we changed the sheets in James' room, all fresh beds and pillowcases, tucked two boys in the double bed, and the girls in the twin bed.  There was lots of fake snoring and laughing at first.

When it got quiet I sneaked up there to check on them.  There was only one kid sprawled out in the big bed.

Where did the other kid go?

I inspected the other  bed. Two heads on the pillows, but an extra pair of feet sticking out of the sheets.  Looking further, there were THREE kids in the twin bed.

I can't lift the bigger two, but that little girl I can still carry, so I moved her to the big bed, and at Dan's advice shoved pillows under the sheet and tucked it in tight to create a barrier so she didn't fall out.

Oh my goodness.

 She enjoyed the sink too:

 We rolled peanut butter Ritz Bits in melted chocolate.

 And this--this was the backdrop of the whole weekend, this little girl ended up in CCU with RSV.

This was unexpected and unwelcome, but Heidi had a bad feeling and rushed her to the hospital early Saturday morning. She's in good hands, receiving the best care, but we're all sad and upset, worried.

Hoping for a smooth recovery.

So much love, Grandma and Grandpa and Everybody