It's Almost Here!

Lindsey's Birthday on the 23rd...

We had a lovely Steak Dinner - grilled to perfection :) 

and Chocolate Cheesecake for dessert.

You can see how excited the little girls were! They were opening the gifts before Lindsey knew what happening.  Birthdays are such  a fun time in our family.  We love Lindsey and everything beautiful she brings to our family.

 Hope you have a magical year! 

 xoxo

 Christmas Eve Dinner

Tradition is Clam Chowder and Seafood.  This year we found a special from a favorite seafood supplier in Alaska and treated ourselves to special Crab and Spot Shrimp Dinner with Chowder and Salad.  We post about many meals and gatherings around the table on our blog.  Our kitchen is core to our family. We love the memories made when we gather to enjoy a nice meal together or sip cocoa and chat. We have certainly had our share of heated discussions and coaxing our little ones to finish their veggies...but for the most part it is a place we look to for love and support.

So we had the flu at our house...Liam and Elsie had lots of resting time under the Christmas Quilt.  It put a bit of a damper on their sledding time.  Never fun to see little ones feeling so sick.  Molly came down with it between Christmas and New Years...so did Grandma Marie :(  Mark took everyone who hadn't had a flu shot down to the clinic.

Christmas Eve

Despite the fact that for several days Liam and Elsie have had been pretty ill, we enjoyed our traditions - especially Molly recounting the story of the birth of Baby Jesus.  Wish we had it on video... someone may have captured a portion of it.  It was a first to listen to Luke 2 being read from an electronic tablet.

After the Christmas stories the kids set out cookies and milk and 8 carrots for the reindeer.  We gathered together and watched this video and then shared part of our Christmas Gift to our children:

72 Hour Kits

We have felt since the super storm, Sandy that hit so close to Brady and Danielle's family - that this was year we should do this for our family.  We realized most of them are pinching pennies for school and new homes...so we have been excitedly preparing these for the past few months.  Emily was wonderful to help us put them all together.  It was a lot of work going on the hunt and researching out the best prices, but so worth it in the end.  It's a great feeling to be working towards preparedness - for who knows what may come.  With nearly all of our children thousands of miles away, it feels good to do something that may help if a disaster ever hit close to them. We even prepared little red bags for each of the grandchildren :)

Hurricane Sandy Helping Hands from Joshua Brown on Vimeo.

 Merry Christmas XO