Ten days ago we made a road trip to Chicago. We had just been through quite a snow storm the day before and all our roads had been closed. However, we miss out on so many family events we really wanted to make it to Chicago for my family's Christmas party. We are thankful for the safety God gave us on the roads. About 12 hours after getting into the city we were quite excited to pick Titus up at the airport. We had not seen him since we dropped him off at school the middle of August.
With coming from a large family of 15 children it is close to impossible for everyone's schedules to work out to be together. However, there were 13 of us 15 siblings that were able to make it to the party. With all of the spouses and children we were a pretty good crowd. It was a special joy this year that Seth & Camille and family and Caleb & Kristina and family were also able to make it to the party. For my parents to be able to see their great grandchildren was a special treat. Also, since I had three of our children in Venezuela my siblings missed out on seeing some of our children as babies. I loved that the extended family was able to enjoy getting to know our grandchildren.
One highlight of Christmas Eve was building a HUGE snowman. Vern, Caleb, Titus, and all the grandchildren but Gavin enjoyed playing in the snow. The snow was a bit heavy so I was worried the men would pull out their backs. I think they did an awesome job on "Frosty". Vern, Caleb Aurora, Gideon and Jeremiah also went sledding which they all really enjoyed.
We came back from Thailand with jet lag and being quite sick. Then we were super busy with end of the semester activites. So I will try to do some posts here for those of you who aren't on Facebook and haven't heard from us since the beginning of November. I will just start by sharing some pictures of Christmas for those of you who like to keep up on out kids and grandchildren. This year Glenn & Ruth and Zachary & Elisha were not able to come home. We are hoping we will be able to see both of them when we drop Titus off for school again. Here are a few snap shots from Christmas Eve. The last two pictures were taken a week ago. And the last picture we sent out with our Christmas cards since we were not together as a family at all in 2016, our grandchildren helped us out with a fun picture.
In an hour we start our journey to Thailand. We have a 15 hour lay over in China so we will be enroute for quite awhile, landing in Thailand on Thursday afternoon. We will be attending a conference and some meetings. We are super excited about visiting one of our graduates and seeing the ministry she is involved in. We would appreciate your prayers as we head out. Thanks!
When everyone is starting to get that pumpkin craze, you know dreaming of pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, etc. I starting dreaming of doing only one thing with a pumpkin, and that is carving it. I love making a memory with our grandchildren while carving pumpkins.
