Saturday, December 27, 2008

A very Merry Christmas indeed...

Missing from this photo is the sleeping baby Sabine, sister Talia and of course our three pooches who were banned to the garage at that moment.

Much fun was had and many horrible pictures were taken , but that's alright since several photography tutorials were received so, things are look'n up! The multitude of gifts were drowning our family tree this year as they awaited happy recipients on Christmas morning. In addition to the excessive gift exchanging, our food consumption this past week has been off the hook. Even tonight I'm feeling like I could burst at any moment due to yet another holiday dinner shared with Mom's side of the family earlier today. As for a favorite present, my husband totally blew my mind by wrapping up a tiny ipod in a jewelry box and tucking it in my stocking. So sneaky, I was not expecting that! I'd have to say though that my truly favorite experience of this Christmas was finding the family videos and then miraculously locating the adapter to view them as well. How entertaining to see us all ten and fifteen years younger! It was a relief that the weather here cooperated just enough to see my brother's family up to the Island and back again while still providing us with a white Christmas. Here's a couple of my favorite pictures from Hans' perspective while we took a walk after brunch on Christmas day.



I'm lucky, lucky, lucky...
Such a beautiful place, a beautiful family and bountiful grace.
If I could change one thing it would be to stretch the hours and days to a double length so that we might revel a little longer in the goodness of each other's joy. The growth in our family is staggering, having us all under one roof "camping out" and seeing the changes in the sixteen years my parent's have been married was mind boggling. My sisters are women (or nearly) and my nieces were just a twinkle only three short years ago whereas now we cannot imagine life without their sweet voices and innocent perspective. I can't tell you how much life they breath into our family, it's surreal that one(or two) little person(s) can affect you so much as they do. The ways in which they have shaped our entire family forces one to step back and admire what hand is at work in this thing we call life.

I now move on with excitement for the New Year and ask for wisdom to do more with what we have. There are passions brewing inside that only sometimes see the light of day, may they have more creative freedom in the coming months! My faith is strong in the goodness of others and in the power of community efforts especially when it comes to animal rescue, I look forward to participating even more this time around. Our furry family is so important to both Hans and I, don't be surprised if it grows in '09 too!

Happy New Year friends, family and Internet...

3 comments:

Raven said...

That last picture is entirely precious.

IndianaJones said...

what fun we had!

Lauryn said...

So glad you had a nice Christmas. Here's to a wonderful New Year as well :)