A Very Kansas Christmas & A Happy New Year

   Did you all have a wonderful Christmas & A Happy New Year?  We had a very Kansas Christmas and it was a joy from the beginning to the end, when the final cookie crumb was brushed off the countertops.

  First up, my BFF and her crew came for dinner and games.  So fun!

​  We also got to keep Kamilyn, my best friends daughter and Avery's BFF, overnight and take her to Wednesday church with us for the kids Christmas party.  

  With no school in session, we spent the days playing games and reading books, hanging out and having fun.  We also cleaned house and cooked lots of yummy food in prepration for Christmas gatherings.

  I feel so honored and SO grown up getting to host all the family Christmases at our place this year.  Tiny in size, but big in heart.....and cheerful colors are fun too!  ;) 

  First up, my Momma's side of the family:

   We ate until we were stuffed and laughed until our sides hurt.  The favorite game is quickly becoming Telestrations and 5 Crowns at our house!

  Look who found her sister's old fancy Christmas dress and decided to get all dolled up for church Sunday.  Avery my fashionista!  ;)

  Our Christmas tradition includes a night of watching ELF and having Spaghetti, first how momma wants.....with sauce and salad.  Then, for seconds, just like Elf.....with candy and pop tarts.  The kids love it and it is such a fun tradition!  This year we invited Nana to join us after church, which was Christmas Eve EVE.

Games and a tricky gift first, then dinner and our movie.  Nana wrapped the kids adventure in Odyssey CD, in SO MANY BOXES, all neatly wrapped in wrapping paper.  She said what took her 2 hours was undone in 15 minutes! LOL

  Actual Christmas eve was spent at church, then over to Grandma's for dinner....

  I will share food recipes in the next blog post, but before church we had prepped some egg casserole and monkey bread to sit overnight so we could bake it easily in the morning.  We also made meatballs and cooked them so we could just do sauce and crockpot the next afternoon.  Potatoes mashed and in the fridge to bake and jello fluffy salad to chill.

  When we got home from Grandma's, the little's wanted to sleep out in front of the tree, so we set up some sleeping bags.  Of course, they were up too late and woke WAY too early, but hey, tis the season! ;)

  Good morning! It's CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!  YAAAAAY!

​  Kids woke us up at 7am, it felt too early because of how late we went to bed, LOL, but it was fine.

  While the casseroles baked, we got Papa Clay's bible off the shelf to read the Christmas Story.  We want Christmas to be about Jesus and the GIFT he was to the world, not presents and santa.  It's sweetly simple and dear to my heart.

  It made me sad, yet comforted, to see his familiar penmanship, filling those pages. Made daddy feel close by....

Dale read the familiar story of the birth of our King, and passed around Frankincense and Myrrh for the kids to drop and smell....

Safe to say, Destiny is not a morning person.  ;)  The blob on the couch is her.

  Time to eat and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus!

  It was so nice to have the whole day stretched out in front of us, with nowhere to be.....

  Kids opened some new movies and games, and then dug into a fun game called Kings Crown, amaaaazing and fun for all ages.

  We sent the kids outside to jump off some energy on the trampoline and while they were out, set up a surprise! 

  SUGAR COOKIES!  From a local bakery called Coneflower Sundry.  She was selling cookie decorating kits.  Yum and still homemade!  Win win.

 Most of the kids did 4 cookies, and once we saw they were done, Dale and I did a couple too!  SO fun!

Dale ate his before I got to snap a pic, but here is Destiny's instagram pic and my 4 cookies I got to decorate!

  We had a nosy neighbor come say hi......

   We had prepped a lot of our Christmas dinner the day before, but it still had to bake, so we distracted the kids with some arts and crafts.   Dale showed them how to make paper SNOWFLAKES!  Avery immediately declared we'd decorate the whole house with them.

  Mmm, dinner turned out lovely!  Meatballs with special sauce, Nana's famous gourmet mashed potatoes, steamed green beans and a fluffy raspberry salad.  I will share recipes in our upcoming Kids In the Kitchen post! :)

  Dale was so proud to conquer his rubix cube!  I was just glad for my husband back.  Hahahaha!

  We ended the day with Christmas Carols by the fire, before you saw awww, it was awful.  Hahahah!  We you tubed christmas karaoke carols and they were cheesy and our singing was probably quite terrible, but hey we had fun! ;) 

    Then, as bedtime approached and everyone settled down, we started talking about Papa and what we missed about him.  Then the tears began.  Not just little tears, but full on sobs.  Poor loves. I held them close, as we talked about Papa and watched this slideshow from his service last year.

  The words to this song are so very precious and my heart clings to them.....

"You're with the Son of God
You're with the Prince of Peace
You're with the one we're celebrating
And that thought amazes me
Sometimes I still break down
Grieving that we're apart
But the sweetest gift is knowing where you are....you're with the Son of God."

"The Sweetest Gift" Slideshow - Daddy's Memorial Service from Tonya Ferguson on Vimeo.

  Got everyone's tears wiped, extra hugs and extra prayers were said, and off to bed they went.  I am thankful for another layer of healing for them.

 Time for bed, tomorrow is another fun family get together with Dale's immediate family.  I will share the Pizza Dip and Brie recipe soon....

  For New Year's night we had Destiny over at her cousins, Ty and Pax went to ring in the New Year with Gigi and Nana, and we had an extra girlie here with us, Avery's best friend, Kamilyn.

  They set up the RV as an apartment all to themselves, so cute.  We had them do a toast at 9pm in hopes that they would go to sleep at a decent time, but alas, that didn't even work.  They still were awake until midnight.  ;)

 OH WELL, we tried!

  Here are some pics:

  Hope you all had an amazing Christmas and New Year!  Thanks for letting me share mine with you. 

​  Here is to a great 2019.......so glad to have you along for the ride. :)

​  Hugs, T