My most prized Christmas gift

 

Grandma Maria, as she is known in our house, made this amazing family portrait from photos of the kids.
It is perfect, and captures who they are so well.
I LOVE it.

stir crazy

the kids have been pretty crazy with all the bad weather we have had, so today, we decided to take them to a pool with some friends.

 

they swam. a lot.

 

and worked up quite an appetite... good thing us mom's brought such a huge amount of food, there wasn't much left!

 

and this handsome gentleman came along too. :) love having him off work for a couple of weeks.

 

more.

 

Africa, Liberia in particular is singing with joy.
Water will come.
Because people acted outside themselves.
Let's not stop now.
Water for Christmas doesn't wrap up until New Year's Day.
One last week.
One more chance to bring life to our brothers and sisters.
Please donate.
Donate because it is the right thing to do.
Donate because you have more then you had two days ago.
You have more.
And will continue to have more.
Use it to save lives.

African Angel

It seems that no matter what I do, Africa permeates every aspect.
And that is totally okay with me. :)

 

And then there were gifts...

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas, from our family to yours....

 

okay, here's a nice one.

 

Is that the Sahara? No, it's Iowa.

 

serious cuteness on christmas eve

 

 

 

 

isaiah

 

 

 

 

hannah

 

 

 

 

brody

 

 

 

 

snowed in on Christmas Eve.... micah

 

 

 

 

the little baby

One time on Hollywood Boulevard I saw a young girl with a baby. It was a crisp winter morning & her hair shone dark purple in the sun. She was panhandling outside the Holiday Inn & the door clerk came out & told her to be on her way & I wondered if anyone would recognize the Christ child if they happened to meet. I remember thinking it's not like there are any published pictures & purple seemed like a good color for a Madonna so I gave her a dollar just in case.
-story people

oh come, oh come, emmanuel

come indeed.
come now.

 

what we do when there's nothing else to do.

pizza of course.
this could totally be some sort of where's waldo photo.
and you will notice who is looking at the camera.
big surprise.

 

merry almost Christmas eve.