We have been having a wonderful time around here. It has been nice to enjoy this time with my parents. The last Christmas we spent with them was when Mary was nearly 2 so it has been a while! Here is a picture of Mom and Dad. They came up the stairs to our part of the house to see the girls open their gifts. But first the girls gave them each something they had chosen for them at the dollar store. In this picture Mom is wearing the scarf Mary picked for her and Dad is holding the mug of candy from Hannah and box of candy from Lydia!

That is our real cedar tree beside them and thankfully Mom didn't get sick from the limited time upstairs with it.
I will now show a picture of each girl with one of her gifts. It isn't necessarily the favorite. Alpheus was pulling double duty with the video and digital cameras so I could supervise the littlest girl! Speaking of Lydia, here she is with a gift her Daddy picked out.

I picked out the tea set on the floor. Daddy picked out the dump truck. You see which one excites her!
Here is Mary with another gift selected by Daddy. There were two choices in the store. The girly pink horse and the tan boyish horse. Today she asked if she could have the daddy horse for her birthday in March!

In the background you can see a monkey webkinz. This is Lydia's second favorite gift and new sleeping pal. Her older cousin Ari bought it for her. Ari named it Buddy online for Lydia. Lydia calls it Bubba. Close enough! Just glad she is starting to be more verbal!
Here is Sarah with her special gift. She told Daddy that she wanted a child's guitar and to learn to play it with him. They have had two lessons so far I think. I told Dh to get his old guitar for me and he could teach us both at the same time!

Hannah asked for a special dress and shoes. Well we couldn't find what she was looking for, but you will see later that she did get a beautiful new dress. Instead, I knew that my growing up girl would love a real tea set. We looked in 7 different stores and finally in Belks we found this 4piece set on sale! It is really beautiful. If she finds one she likes better some day I will buy this one from her! She is looking forward to hosting our next tea some time in January! She told her friend, "I got a real tea set from China." Well actually it is from Indonesia!

Did I mention the girls decorated our tree? Their first year to do so. They loved it!
Here is the new dress Hannah (and the other girls too!) received from Memaw Rose. They looked so beautiful! This was after church on Sunday so their hair was a little wild from wind and hats! For those who really pay attention to details, yes I moved the room around after we took the tree down.

After the girls opened up their other gifts and cards they had one last gift to open. I didn't get any digital pics of it, but we video taped the girls going on a treasure hunt for a special gift. They searched for clue letters of a special word which led them to the last clue - the description of their gift. You see I couldn't hand it to them because it is tickets to the circus in Roanoke! They were so excited. Our girls have never been to a circus before. When I found out there would be one in January inside the Roanoke Civic Center I thought it must be pretty big! They were also excited to learn that their cousin, Ari, was also going to be going as part of the gift! So we are looking forward to a fun experience!
After cleaning up a bit we headed outside to use some of the toys they received. They all received sleds, but since it hasn't snowed since then I don't have any pics. Although I have to say that Hannah got hers out and tried to ride down the grassy hill. Mary got a soccer ball, Hannah a ball and bat, Sarah a child's golf set, and they all got a new tire swing from Memaw! They were so thrilled! Here is Lydia getting the "hang of it" and laying back to really ride this horse!

Mary was very excited about her new ball.

Here the girls are as Daddy is explaining a bit about soccer and the rules for the game.
Neighbor's shed, but our ditch. The goal for this game.

After a bit of running the girls decided to try a different game with the ditch. Here is Sarah jumping the ditch.

Do you see who is headed for the ditch? Yep, you may have guessed who tried next. Actually she made it the first time, but when she tried again she came up a bit short.

Not hurt or even too upset, but she does hate to get her hat dirty!

We ended our fun time outside skipping rocks in the back yard where a bit of a pond has developed!

I will end with a couple of pictures from Christmas eve. We went to Dan and Lorilyn's (my sis) house for a family party with gift giving and hymn singing. Afterwards we (our family, Dan, Ari, my brother Monte, his wife Sharon, and Mom) went to a nursing home in the area to sing and share the Word of God. We had the girls dress up because I knew the residents would like to see them that way. Before we left the house I had the girls sit on the stairs for a picture. If I had a good camera and some skill this could be a cut picture I think, but oh well, it is still cute to me. I have to show two because I didn't get everyone smiling in any single picture. So just splice the two together mentally, would you? 

I think this is the best face forward smile I have taken of Lydia. On the next one I accidentally missed getting Lydia. I don't know if she moved when I shot it or if I just goofed. We were actually getting ready to sing hymns and they were calling for us!

Some of you may have noticed that Sarah's not wearing her glasses. Well, she has had glasses for three years and this was her first time breaking them. We are going to try to order her the bendable kind now. She can't wait to wear contacts!
Well, 2008 was a wonderful and also difficult year for us. We are so thankful for all our family and friends who have supported us through the major changes of the past year. It is a true blessing to know and love you!
We appreciate your continued prayers for us in selling our home and finding our new place of ministry. Waiting is hard, but God gives us strength. There are still two churches praying and seeking a pastor and considering Alpheus for that. We know that God's will must be done! May He find us always faithful!
We pray God blesses you and your family in 2009 with more of Him!
Eva |