Christmas Recap

We had a wonderful Christmas filled with family, gifts, and food! Jesse and I were serving on lights and slides at church on Christmas morning so we had to be up super early. We opened a couple stocking stuffers at home together and then loaded the rest of the gifts to take to my parents house to open after church.

Jesse and meSiblings

We didn’t even start opening gifts until after lunch which made it hard to wait, but was also kinda nice because usually the excitement of Christmas morning is over by then so this made it last longer. In my family we take turns opening our gifts so that we can enjoy seeing what everyone else got. Dad usually passes out a gift from youngest to oldest, and we keep going in rounds until all the gifts are gone.

Dad with power toolMom opening scarfMom wearing scarfAsh with GPS

This year every gift seemed to come with a long story about how, when, why it was purchased. It’s always fun to hear about all the sneaky-ness that everyone had to keep secret until the gift was opened.

DeweyNicole with jewlery boxJesse with message cardMe with popsicle molds

As you can see, everyone gave and received so many nice gifts. There are lots of good shoppers in my family! So what was your favorite gift to give or get this year?

Nuggets: Birthdays

Family birthday dinners are a forever long tradition in our family. This weekend we had a three-in-one birthday dinner to celebrate Nicole (last month), Andrew (on his birthday), and Jesse’s (next week) birthdays. Mom made black bean soup and a salad, and I brought my no-noodles lasagna (Jesse’s new favorite). We had a great time hanging out together.

:: Balloon wars. One should never underestimate the amount of fun to be had in hitting each other with balloons. Mom and Dad had filled Andrew’s room with balloons on his birthday eve and we spent a lot of evening attacking each other with them. You’d think it would get old, but just when you though it was over… someone would start another battle. I have to say that arm is actually sore from smacking so many balloons.

Balloons

:: Cake. Mom made a cake filled with 21s for Nicole and Andrew, and 33s for Jesse. The colorful balloons on top of the cake are as old as I am. I’m pretty sure they’ve been on just about everyone’s birthday cake every year!

Cake

:: I was pretty excited to give Andrew his Math geek gift. In our house, you know it’s a good gift when it causes Dad and Andrew to spontaneously burst into problem solving. Perfect gift… weird men!

GiftClock

:: Andrew got several nice gifts. One of the things Nicole got him was personalized guitar picks. They had their picture and a birthday message printed on them. She’s so smart!

Picks

:: We sang happy birthday to all of them and they blew out their candles. Nicole also made a peanut butter and jelly pie (at Jesse’s request) and a key lime pie.

Birthday people

Happy birthday to all, and to all a good night.

Farm Favorites

Fall trees

We’ve had a nice visit here with Grandpa and Grandma Sipes. The farm is so peaceful and quiet, I think it’s almost impossible not to feel rested after spending any amount of time here. I sure do love being here each time we come. Even though we are ready to be back home, it’s always hard to leave. We plan to be on the road early tomorrow morning. In between packing up what we can today, I was looking through some of my favorite pictures from the last week.

Red leavesYellow woodsSoy beansDandilionLady bug on tirePear tree

Jesse has really enjoyed the few small projects he got to work on in the barn with his dad and his grandpa. Grandpa completely returns to his old self when he’s out there working with his hands.

Working on tractorJesse driving tractorGpa in barnGpa with tractor

Jesse has taken hundreds of amazing sunset pictures. Several nights this week he was out after dinner taking pictures of the sky.

SunsetsSunsetSunset 3

One of our most favorite meals is Grandma’s beef and noodles. We got to open up some of the beef we canned the day before for lunch yesterday. I brought my own noodles to make with my portion. We just couldn’t leave without having that meal.

Beef and noodles

Jesse earned his keep by doing one of his favorite chores: trash burning. I’m not sure it qualifies as a chore for him… he has too much fun doing it.

Jesse making fireJesse burning trash

It’s been below freezing when we wake up the last couple of mornings. Jesse got some pretty neat pictures of the frost covering the farm before the sun had a chance to warm things up.

Frost on grassFrost by the barnFrost on wind vane

Possibly my favorite picture of the week is one of Grandpa and Grandma. Jesse and I have plenty of great marriage examples to aspire to, but theirs is definitely at the top of the list as it is one of the longest. Jesse and I just have to giggle when all Grandpa has to do is look over at Grandma for her to know what he wants, and she’ll get up and get it for him. I guess that’s what happens when you’ve been together as long as they have. They’re amazing!

Gpa and Gma in chairs