Merry CHRISTmas!

We finally got our month-long trip to Europe posted and it's already Christmas! So we wanted to pause and wish you all a very Merry CHRISTmas!

Our Christmas letter explained that this was the first time in 36 years (since we became parents) that our Christmas card didn't include a picture of our children. But let's face it, they still look the same as they did last year. But happily, our two grandchildren just keep getting bigger and cuter. Sadly, Mark and Denisa just keep looking older--with less hair and more wrinkles.

The back side of our card includes more pictures from Europe and grandchildren--two of our highlights from 2024. We've enjoyed a fun advent season with those grandchildren stopping by almost every day that we are in town. Since Eli isn't in school yet, he stops by most frequently, and he knows the drill. We first add another crocheted ornament on the crocheted Christmas tree in the hall. Then we head to the chocolate advent calendar to open up a treat each day.

Then we check another advent calendar to put together the next nativity puzzle. That has been a fun new project this year!

In December we made the trip down to the Crown Center for one of Kansas City's famous "Christmas Experience" traditions.

Carter is busy with first grade, but we get to see her in the evenings and for fun on the weekends!

She got her Christmas present early--an electric keyboard so she could start taking piano lessons from Gram.

Another Kansas City tradition is the beautiful displays inside downtown's Union Station.

Union Station is all decked out with lights and trains and singing reindeers and penguins. It's a magical Christmas experience for children and adults as well!

Besides spending time with our grandchildren, we were blessed with precious time with other relatives. We will see both Mark and Denisa's sides of the family before the Christmas holiday is over. But earlier in December we got together with Denisa's sisters and mother for another family tradition.

Each December, our grandparents made a huge batch of tiny spicy German cookies called peppernuts. We've continued that tradition with a baking day of making these labor-intensive cookies.

We followed that up with a new tradition of playing piano trios! Our mother was glad to see that paying for all those piano lessons for three daughters was worth it.

We had our first snow of the season in Kansas City, and it was the perfect consistency for rolling giant snowballs in the back yard.

While we did make one snowman . . .

the kids' favorite project was a snow fort. We lost a mitten while pushing those giant balls of snow across the back yard because the packed snow covered it so quickly. We didn't find that mitten for many days until the snow fort walls melted.

We visited a live nativity scene and had fun listening to the Christmas story and then feeding the camel. We also have a plastic nativity set at our house that Eli loves to play with. When Denisa suggested that we might add some of our plastic animals to the stable, she was thinking a cow and maybe some sheep. But Eli added a polar bear, a lion, a panda, a dinosaur . . . Who knew the stable was so crowded?

It's been a great advent season, as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus! We wish you a very merry and crowded CHRISTmas as well!