Contemplating Christmas & our upcoming 32nd Anniversary

This year was a delightful and low key Christmas. It was our first year to donate money in honor of another family member instead of gifts for the family member. We wrote a note about why we chose what we did and tears abounded. It almost feels too intimate to write those details. But the emotions were deep and much more satisfying than endless gift wrapped packages purchased for the sole reason of being opened. This will definitely be a new tradition that I will look forward to each year.

Jaime made Kevin an amazing scrapbook that honored his grandparents. G'ma and G'pa had written stories for us over the years about their childhoods, marriage, family, hard times, good times, and many words of wisdom. In one story, G'pa said, "Losing everything wasn't all bad. It was during those hardest times that we saw how much our church family loved us. And we cherished friends and family so much more." I hope this scrapbook will become an heirloom to the family. Thanks, Jaime, your hard work will last for generations and the book is just stunning.

Then the girls gave us a CD of family pictures. They put the kids in Cowboy uniforms to honor Kevin. They were wonderful! I recognize that it took them a lot of effort to get all 3 families together and keep them in good spirits during all the posing and picture taking. All that was not lost on us. Girls, thank you. The pictures were wonderful and I can't wait to get our newest family picture on the wall.

Here are my 3 favorite pictures. The grandkids, the girls, and the entire family.









Looking at these pictures reminds us that these are the things that are important to us at Christmas. And these pictures make the celebration of our 32nd anniversary that much sweeter. We look at these kids and grandkids and we feel like we did a lot of things right. We see that God was faithful to give us wisdom liberally as we cried out to him as we raised our family. We serve an amazing God who has blessed us beyond anything we ever imagined.