Week Before Christmas

Yesterday my family was together for Christmas. Several years ago we began having brunch on a Saturday near Christmas. It is something a little different than the usual get together's this time of year. We had breakfast haystacks, pancakes, fresh fruit, sticky buns and coffee. We exchanged names this year. The children were beyond excited! We gave my parents wooden porch rockers and they gave us folding tables.

I don't have very many pictures to post. For some reason my camera stayed in its case most of the day.

The Kindergarden class had their Christmas party on Thursday.

Kiana and Joseph got play dough sets from their teacher. 

Joseph got two presents as his birthday will be while they are off for Christmas vacation. 

On Wednesday evening our church went Christmas caroling. It was cold but so neat to share the Good News with others. The snow made the evening extra special.

On Friday Joseph and I had our plans changed abruptly when someone pulled out in front of us while we were driving to therapy. It is amazing what all can go through your head in a seconds time! I saw the vehicle, blew my horn, slammed on the brakes and hit her in less time than it takes to tell about it. Poor lady never saw me, she was still looking straight ahead when I hit her. She wanted to just exchange insurance info but Dean told me I should report it. Was good I did because she had turned her license in the day before for another incident. We waited a long time for the police to arrive. Joseph was not one bit impressed! When the officer went back to his car after getting my information, Joseph wondered why he had a gun with him. It is amazing how observant he can be at times. Needless to say, we never made it to therapy. I am thankful it wasn't worse and no one was hurt. The explorer is going to need some work done but I can still drive it.

Tomorrow I am heading to MD to pick up Braden for his second home visit. We are looking forward to having him home again. Someone who went through a very similar situation said the second home visit tends to have more challenges, so please keep us in your prayers. We don't have many plans for the week as we want to keep things low key. I didn't make any cut out cookies and thought perhaps we could make them on Tuesday. I also bought a gingerbread house for the children to decorate. I used to try to make them on my own but they never got quite like I envisioned they would.