We celebrated many separate Christmas' this year - one celebration with each of our three sons. The first celebration was the Wednesday before Christmas. 
Grandchildren make it all so much more fun!
A kiss for a new dolly...
And what could be better then a few smiles too? 
Four years ago today this precious boy was born! 
On the 12th day of the 12th month our 12th grandchild was born!
He was welcomed into this world by his "big" brother and his loving parents.
He is just perfect.
What more can be said other then "thank you, God, for this precious gift."
What a wonderful Christmas gift! 
Our 12th grandchild has arrived! A perfect and handsome grandson! We give thanks and praise to God for this precious gift.
While we wait for grandchild number 12 to arrive soon, I thought I'd post two recent pictures of these two sweethearts.
This little fella was showing deliberate motion with his hand today, reaching towards the dangling toy. Oh, he's so smart! He's waiting for his buddy to be born soon.... 
This past weekend was a very special wedding!
My husband's eldest brother was married to a lovely woman.
This was a second marriage for both of them; both of them widowed in the last few years.
And now my brother-in-law, who did not have children or grandchildren, enjoys the blessings of his wife's beautiful family!
The reception was a joyful occassion in a beautiful room overlooking the lights of the city.
We enjoyed delicious food, wonderful conversation and some very special music by the grandchildren of the bride.
The bride and groom offered words of thankfulness to God for their friendship and love. I captured a sweet look as my new sister-in-law smiled at her new husband....
This picture is my husband (on the left) and 3 of his 4 brothers. One brother and his wife and one sister and her husband were unable to attend.
Happy Birthday today to my mom, who is a spry 94 years old. Here she is holding me as a little baby. 
My, how we have changed...
Any guesses as to what the purpose of this tube would be?
Here's another view... surprisingly we do not yet have snow. We expect this backyard view to be all white and remain thus for the rest of the winter... but so far, no snow! Just brown dried up oak leaves... but what is this I have photographed?
Perhaps this view will be more helpful.....
Or this view? Now you must have figured it out.... 
My Christmas list continues to grow... and by Christmas we anticipate this group rounding out to a nice even dozen! One more baby soon! Can't wait!
Like so many others, we gathered around the table yesterday to offer thanks for the many blessings of the past year. Two our our three sons and their families were able to join us and we managed to sit around one table. The "children's table" is certainly in our future when all three sons and 11 (soon to be 12!) grandchildren need a place to sit. 
And we give a special thanks for this new member of the family celebrating his first Thanksgiving! Soon his cousin will be born in time for the two of them to celebrate their first Christmas! God is good. 
Precious are the memories of my mother-in-law. She was born 112 years ago today to Norwegian immigrant parents. (She is the infant in this picture.) She was the most gracious, godly woman I have ever known and we know she prayed daily for each person in her family. She was the mother to 8 children and the grandmother to 21, and great grandmother to about 64... Her legacy continues and continues. Her children remember no cross words. We are so thankful for the life and faith she exhibited.
As I give thanks this Thanksgiving, I give God thanks for the memory and life of my dear mother-in-law. 
I love Christmas and now I have had the pleasure of sharing a Christmas decorating task with this sweet granddaughter, our oldest grandchild. I think this may be the third year that she has assisted me in putting up our "Snow village" and what once seemed like an arduous task was a piece of cake!
We had arranged for a day to be together to do this but had to postpone it due to two sad funerals in our church (requiring many hands to help serve) and to be frank, I really didn't have the energy or interest in doing this right now but I knew she was looking forward to "our day together" so we proceeded. I'm so glad we did, first of all, to spend time together with a grandchild is such a gift; and to accomplish this first-decorating-for-Christmas task is now done too! ( I'm a bit more ready to get the rest of the house decorated too.) There was only one hard thing here... I relinquished control of where all the accessory pieces went... and if you know me, that is something I don't do easily! But I stepped back, let her have the joy of arranging things, and I will not (repeat... will not) change a thing. 
The subtle shifting of seasons was apparent today. I noticed this soft snow on my pumpkins letting me know that the long, lovely fall we have enjoyed will not always be here... sooner then we think the winter will settle in. Just like life, the long season of childhood turns into adulthood and then, if one is so blessed, the season of marriage and parenthood and then again the seasons change and we have the joys of grandparenting... oh, the subtle changes of life. Each season has its joys; its blessings. I am happy to be in the midst of receiving new grandchildren (number 11 last month, number 12 coming next month!) - with joy I face these changes. And with joy, I rejoice that "all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be" Psalm 139:16b
This past weekend I enjoyed a wonderful time at our Bible camp not far from my town. The entire weekend was open to ladies who wanted to bring their scrapbooking or quilting or card-making projects. We were all given a work area and lots of time to work away at our projects!
While some were avid scrapbookers, others brought their sewing supplies...
and their irons and fabric pieces for their quilting passion.
My friend, D, was working on some scrapbooks for her youngest son. She was working through pictures of his high school football career...
... while I took this time to take advantage of the knowledgeable quilters around me to help me finish this long-overdue Christmas runner that I made while attending a quilting class years ago.
This was how the room looked; whether it was first thing in the morning or late into the wee hours of the night... there were always busy bees working away...
There were two other rooms of quilters/scrapbookers as well. We had such fun getting to know other ladies from other churches, seeing their handiwork and enjoying the fabulous meals together as well. And we had meaningful chapel time together as well.
It's really fun to sew and chat with a good friend at the same time!
As women, we are great multi-taskers; working, chatting, laughing, checking text-messages... etc. etc.... all at the same time. 
My goal for the weekend was to sew some baby blankets from the super-soft fabric called "minky." Some of the blankets had minky on one side and satin on the other side. And some blankets had minky on both sides. Oh! So soft and cuddly!!
As grandma to almost 12 sweet grandchildren, I need to have some great gifts ready to go! - Note there are 5 "boy" patterns and here and only 1 "girl" blanket. Not sure who is going to ever get the girl blanket now... we are on a "boy" roll this year. 
Thank you to all who have served our country to help preserve our freedom!
God bless America.
How can it be that our youngest son is having a birthday... again? 
