Christmas #2!

This past weekend we enjoyed our first trip to visit my parents since June! It was so weird how out of practice we were with packing. First, we forgot Eric's dialysis fluid. Kind of hard to do dialysis without dialysis fluid! Thankfully the dialysis clinic in Wichita was able to give us 2 days worth. Then, after I arrived I realized I didn't pack underwear! Finally about an hour before I was supposed to get up and get ready for the celebration I realized I forgot the little "curly hair" attachment for the blow dryer. A trip t Wal-Mart at 6am solved those to problems.

It was a great time, as always. My mom really sacrifices of herself to provide very generous Christmas gifts for her children and grandchild. [I suppose my step dad really sacrifices to pay for it!] She knows we don't NEED these things. But she has such a heart for giving. It's her fun to go shopping for it all.

This year before opening presents began my mom read "The Three Trees" to everybody, to remind us all why we celebrate Christmas, and that Jesus is more important than any earthly gift she could give us.

My sister and I had fun putting together a special gift for my mom. She's got grandkids from 4 different countries between my sister and I. We purchased a different fair trade item to represent each country (and in the case of Bright and Kendi, different areas of Ghana). A basket made in Northern Ghana (Kendi), Ghanaian chocolate (Bright), silk ornaments (Cambodia), a bowl made from Vietnamese newspapers (Samren), and a Mayan Mary and Jesus ornament (Guatemala). My mom cried! Ha!! I guess the gift hit the spot we were going for. =-) [Just realized the pic of my mom with her basket is on another camera. Shoot!]

I thought Kendi would check out mentally (like she has in the past) and be shy the whole time. NOT. The child was her true self, down to the fit she threw because we didn't begin opening presents on HER time. The picture below cracks me up. This face was because we told her it wasn't time to open presents yet.

I wasn't in much of a picture taking mood, so no "perfect" family pictures this year, from this celebration. Oh well. These were pretty cute, standing by the tree.
At the end of the day we were all sitting around trying not to fall asleep. Kendi and Bright both had colds, and didn't mind at all taking a nap when I made the suggestion. This is an awful pic of me, but I sure love a pic of me holding my sleeping babies. =-)

At the end of the day we were delighted to see a herd of deer outside my parent's house. It was so cool. There were 10 of them. A little Merry Christmas from nature. =-)

The big kids stayed at Grandma and Grandpa's house to spend some special time with them before Christmas. They will be home on Christmas Eve. I miss them terribly (especially during this season) but I know they are having a great time. The little kids keep going, "Where sissy? When sissy coming home? Where Sammy? I miss Sammy." =-)