Christmas 2021

 Mark and I were up really early Christmas morning well actually it started very late last night. Our smoke alarm went off. That woke us before midnight. Mark got up to check everything and even thought he smelled smoke but there was no fire. We had not had the wood burner going as the evening and night were mild. Honestly I never got out of bed on that alarm but went right back to sleep. Around 3:30 am the alarm went off again. This time I thought I smelled smoke. Mark stayed in bed but I went searching and again found nothing. I ended up falling asleep on the recliner chair while on duty. After that very disturbed night be both overslept not waking until 6:30 am. Of course that meant a rush to get everything done before leaving for church at 9:30 am.   Church was a blessing. Sarah and Nolan brought Zion, Eden and River. It was such a joy to sit with them during Christmas service. Craig Stickling had that.  After church Zion and Eden came home with us to help decorate Christmas cookies. 

They had fun and those cookies ended up with SO many sprinkles. They took this job very seriously. If you would like to see the rest of the cookie pictures click HERE.  At 2:30 we headed over to Joan's house for Christmas dinner.  Mark grilled the steaks out on her porch. The dinner was delicous.

Nancy sure enjoyed it and cleaned her plate quickly.  Joan had made fudge which was added to the Christmas cookies and pumpkin dump cake for our dessert.  Braelyn, Taegan and Kensley enjoyed playing Christmas dress up at Joan's.

After dinner I took Nancy home while Mark cleaned up the kitchen. As soon as I got back from Morton I drove straight to mom's to help her get ready for bed.  I took the picture below of the Christmas lights on mom's balcony with Joan's house in the back ground across the lake.

Tomorrow mom wants all of her Christmas decorations put away so this will be the last night to enjoy them.  This Christmas was a hard Christmas. Mom would have preferred to be in Gulf Shores with all of the family down there. They are having beautiful 75 degree sunny weather and today lots of the kids were playing in the Gulf Waters.  Greg was catching huge whitefish and the rest were getting lots of beach time. We are still very thankful we can celebrate the birth of Jesus even if we can't be together. Jesus really was the best gift EVER!