Christmas On Christmas Day!

Ahhh....how good the Lord is, and how great is His mercy! Against all odds He worked it out for us to have Christmas on Christmas day! His blessings are countless! I was overjoyed! What a loving heavenly Father we serve!
Many times over the wonderful Christmas holiday spent together I found myself simply marveling and rejoicing that we were all home....TOGETHER for Christmas! It was SO AMAZING to have Thomas home from his travels to Southeast Asia! It definitely set the mood for the Christmas festivities!

Let the present opening begin with the youngest...

and the young at heart!;)

Monkeys are REALLY in right now! Asher's diaper bag from his loving "Aunt Beep Beep" (the name Joanna has affectionately given me because of my watch beeping every half hour) matched his outfit he had on that night!

The "lovebirds" who I'm pretty sure I can safely say had the BEST Christmas EVER! They got engaged on Christmas Eve! SO HAPPY for you Aaron and Anna! Love you both!

David shouting for joy over his tickets to a Creighton Bluejay's basketball game!:-D

Uncle Thomas snuggling with Asher! Oh what a blessing family is!

"Look at the pretty scarf Aunt Julia made for me!"

One of the CUTEST moments of the night was when Joanna proudly carried her gift for Uncle Thomas into the room...a shop broom with a bow tied around it!

She was SO EXCITED to give it to him! Her expressions were priceless!

Awww....

My Christmas gifts were perfect! My own set of luggage! I've often borrowed Anna's to go on long trips because I didn't have my own, and now with Anna getting married I was in dire straights!:) Thanks to Josiah and dad and mom problem solved!:-D With my adventuresome spirit, and traveling ways I'm SURE they will be WELL USED!:-D

I think the funniest moment that topped all funny moments in the midst of all our laughter and joking around was when Joanna climbed into the cat kennel in the porch and shut herself in!:) Josiah thought it was GREAT...she was FINALLY contained!:)

Goofball!

Yep...the reason she crawled in and was quite content to be locked in there was because kitty was in there too! I'm quite sure she considered being locked in the cat kennel with the kitty the best thing that ever happened to her!:-D

Over the couple of days spent at our house Joanna fell thoroughly in love with Kit. She would lay in the kennel with her for extended periods of time, carry her around by the neck and tail, try to force her to eat when she thought she needed to, and pet her seemingly continually! Poor Kit...she is such a tolerant cat!

Ahhh....young love!:-D

On Monday afternoon Anna broke out the bubble game and the fun began...A bubble gum blowing contest!

It was absolutely H.I.L.A.R.I.O.U.S!!!!

Needless to say we got bubble gum all over our faces, blew some pretty impressive bubbles and.....

Had a LOT of good laughs!!!!

The cutest family EVER!:)

Snuggling with my lil' man! Love it! God is SO GOOD! His love is SO OVERWHELMING! His mercy is inexhaustible! His grace is all sufficient! I simply can not put into words the gratefulness in my heart for the goodness of my God! I'm SO GLAD I serve a God who is alive, who sees, who hears, who feels and who cares SO MUCH about me! Oh how often we take the blessings of our God for granted! Thank Him for His hand in your life today, and let the joy of His love overflow to those around you!