Merry Christmas--from our blog to you!--one week late

Sending out cards is one of the holiday chores we have completed every year since we were married 40 Christmases ago. We've always included a letter, and a picture that included our children once they started arriving seven years later. So we include this year's Christmas card in the blog today, wishing you all a very Merry Christmas--one week late!

We sprung for the more expensive cards this years, just so we could include more pictures of our precious grandbabies on the flip side of that card.

We are very blessed to get to spend this Christmas holiday with our family! The one advantage of having Covid in October is that we have good immunities through the holidays. So we got to spend Christmas day together. We are blessed to spend this special day hosted by our daughter-in-law's parents in their beautiful home in Oklahoma. Celebrating together means that we get to share our grandchildren together all day! We didn't even try to take a group family picture, as all our pictures seemed to be centered around our two grandchildren in their Christmas pajamas.

We hadn't seen them for ten days, and we were amazed at how much little Eli has changed in that time!

We spent the day playing with new toys . . .

and catching up on hugs.

We read books together . . .

and got a little silly before the day was over.

That silliness would include our sons and daughters-in-law leaving a toasty hot tub to swim across the 50-degree pool!

But at the end of such a great day, we want to pause to remember the reason for this season. Our annual Christmas letter included a summary of our year, and ended with this story: Our two-year-old granddaughter, Carter, recently watched an animated movie of the Christmas story. Then Carter announced her name is now "Mary," and the stuffed panda she carries everywhere is now named "Jesus." As we were driving to see Christmas lights one evening, we heard her whisper into her panda's ear, "I love you, Jesus!" Hearing her sweet little voice say those words brings to life the real meaning of the season. We celebrate the birth that changes our lives eternally. "We love you, Jesus!" Merry CHRISTmas from our blog to you--one week late!