Random {Christmas} Rambles

A little recap of our Christmas holiday…

We got to see Santa and a couple of real live reindeer…

We ate a few chicken nuggets, went to the doctor for the FIFTH TIME IN 2 WEEKS and then came on home.

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Sweet Sayble is finally feeling a bit better.  She got croup just like brother but had two infected ears on top of it and now has a cold.  We did a lot of this around here…and I haven’t minded a bit to be honest…

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One of my FAVORITE things to bake is pumpkin bread and banana bread.  I’m not a fan of thick, dense, heavy bread and these two are moist and light and heavenly, if I do say so myself.

Since we had a little downtime with all the sickies, I cooked up 22 loaves for some of our sweet friends…

We ate two and took two the Phipps family Christmas and the kids were asking for some this morning.  Guess I shoulda made more…

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We always get the kids Christmas jammies as an early gift.  They got to open them before we went Christmas light looking and hot cocoa drinking last week.

They got changed immediately and looked ADORABLE!

We cruised around Holyoke and then came home for some popcorn and a little Apple Dumpling Gang watching!  This was one of Wrexy’s FAVORITE movies as a kid and our kids have fallen in love with it as well.

It was a REALLY good day…

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My home is truly a place of refuge for me.  The other evening we had the lights off and the Christmas tree was glowing and the candles were filling the air with sweet scents…the kids were playing joyfully in the other room and Sayble was cooing at an angel from the nativity scene…daddy was on his way home and supper was in the oven and I was just so at ease.  There is truly no place I’d rather be than HOME.

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Our sweet neighbors invited us over to have supper and have a little Christmas celebration.  The kids had a ball (per usual) and were bouncing off the walls in excitement.  (Pretty sure the Krueger house was a LOT quieter after we left!)

Mr. Rick built the kids a barn for all of their farm animals and toys and it. is. gorgeous!  The hay mow flips open and the barn doors slide; there’s glass in the windows and ‘Phipps’ is engraved in the side.  Seriously, you guys, it’s one of the kindest, most thoughtful gifts we’ve ever received.  The kids have played with it CONSTANTLY since then!

Wryder didn’t fully understand that the barn was ours to take home.  When it was time to go, he immediately started melting down and said, “Can I please come back and play with it sometime?”  Ms. Kristi jumped in and saved the day and helped him realize he got to take it home.  He stopped, dried his eyes and started jumping up and down with joy!  It was pretty cute.

Mr. Logan and sweet Sara got the kids an EQUALLY awesome gift – a membership to Adventures in Odyssey!  For the year, we can listen to any and every episode that we can!  With our living in the boonies and driving 30 miles+ to get anywhere, this is a GREAT gift!  The kids (and us!) love it!

We are blessed with some of the best friends, I tell ya…

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On Christmas Eve, we spent the day getting ready to head to Nebraska.  We still had laundry to do and suitcases to pack and a few last minute gifts to wrap.

We ate a yummy lunch of steak and potatoes – everybody’s favorite – and took communion as a family.  We are so thankful that Jesus was born!   We took time to thank Him for the ultimate sacrifice He made for us with His death and took time to remember the faithfulness He’s shown us in 2015.  We are a blessed people….

We went to Christmas Eve services at church and the kids got to get fancy!

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Sawyer and Wryder left Santa some cookies and milk and they left carrots for the reindeer.  🙂  Santa showed up and the kids didn’t even get up until 8:00 to check out their goods!

For Santa and friends

Wrexy snacked on the carrots and then threw them in the yard as if the reindeer ate them.  The kids found them this morning and were SO excited!

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They have been so kind and gracious and grateful this year…makes a momma’s heart happy.  They’ve wrapped “gifts” they’ve taken from their rooms and made gifts and then wrapped them all with whatever they could find.

Wrex was looking for his shoes to go to the barn the other day and Wryder had taken those, too!  We found them wrapped in tissues under the tree.  Their generosity and desire to bless blesses us…

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We headed to Nebraska on Christmas day to be with the Phipps family.  We had a WONDERFUL time being together.  The kids had so much fun playing with all of their cousins and we had fun with their cousins’ parents.  🙂

The boys got pajama pants and we took the mandatory modeling picture.  If you don’t hear from me for a while, it means one of these guys has killed me for posting this.  😉

All of us grandkids got to give Grandma Rusk a very special gift this year.  We wanted to make it the grand finale – the last gift to be opened – but we were all so excited we did it pretty much first thing!

It worked out well because the kids were all quiet and there weren’t a lot of other distractions.  This lady is something else and so deserving of every good thing.

We took time for everyone tell the family a big thing they felt like the Lord was doing or something they really needed prayer about in the new year.  During that time, Granny said that she’s gotten the same word two different times that the Lord has a mission for her in Stillwater. She was saying she didn’t really have a clue as to what it might be or have any preconceived notion what it was but she was ready to get there and get going! Lord I hope to be here and be that ready to serve the Kingdom at 80 years old…

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We finished up Christmas here today.  This year has been especially fun with the kids older and fully able to soak up the joy of the season.

We are so fortunate to have daddy home with us the rest of the week for Christmas vacation.  We plan to soak him up and watch fun shows and eat fun food and play games and enjoy being together…our favorite thing!

Oh, and nap.

Christmas break is hard, y’all!