Christmas Reflections

I had the best Christmas this year! We did a few things differently and they made Christmas a lot more special to me. First, my dad who has everything he could ever want told the whole family not to buy him anything this year. We decided to go together and give money to a youth ministry that he supports in his city. It was really neat because it came up to a pretty good sum of money with all of us pitching in! Secondly we usually do a gift card exchange with my sister, Carrie's family and all of our neices and nephews. This year we gave of ourselves instead. We gave a service or something that we made and played our gift exchange game with those. It was great! I got a beautiful scarf that Drionne made and Ed got an unbelievable car wash from my niece Staci. I am going to get to give myself to cleaning Jeff and Lacey's house. (she hasn't cashed in yet) It was really fun to see the creativity that everyone had. My new daughter-in-law, Olivia leaned to crochet from the internet and made 2 really pretty scarves. On the card she said one was for them and one was to give away. Way to go Olivia! She took it up to another level! After we did that gift exchange we headed to UMC to give away gifts to children and to nurses.
What a bummer to be in the hospital on Christmas. The hospital visit was fun. I think the people enjoyed us coming but the best part to me was experiencing it with all my family. I am so proud of my kids!!! Our kids have always gotten on board with crazy ministry ideas that we have and now they are leading us. As you will see in the pictures, Will was leading the way in his Christmas pj's. (A side note, I cut back on my giving to Ed this year and told him to do the same. When I opened my gift from him, it was travel bags. One of them had a hotel reservation to Dallas in it. I was so excited! What a great idea, a gift we will enjoy together. My man is the best! He spoils me rotten!)
For those of you keeping up, the poop walk continues!

Denae had opened a present from Will and told him to come give her a hug!

Cousins. I love these people!

Jeff and Will

Hospital Group

Will leading the way

Me, Olivia and Lance getting ready.

One of the patients gave Will a balloon

Chris noticed this tile that some children had made. It really touched us all. I believe God wants to use us to help the world! Happy New year!!!