A Christmas Story - Part 1

It's an extraordinary blessing that our family has grown so much over the years. It's incredible that each of our six children is married to someone they love and respect. And it seems like nothing short of miraculous that each of our sons and daughters has 3 or more children including at least one boy and one girl.

If there's a drawback to such an amazing set of circumstances, it's the challenge involved in getting everybody together at least occasionally. And that's why we strive to get as many family members here for the week between Christmas and New Year's Day as possible. With this time slot, we can celebrate Christmas and enjoy our traditional New Year's Eve party without worrying about family members driving home after imbibing one too many celebratory beverages.

This was one of those rare years when neither of our sons was deployed and no baby was born within days of Christmas making travel and an extended stay unpractical so we were within one person of being together as a family and it was awesome. The drawback here is that our house isn't large enough to accommodate such a large group. But on the plus side we have an excuse to rent a very large house in Beachwalk along with it's two bedroom carriage house which also has a kitchen and living room with pull-outs. The large loft and 7 bedrooms accommodate a lot of people and with our house and Beth's for back-up, there's more than enough room for everybody.

So what do we do during that week? Lots of things. Five years ago cousins Tessa Mary and Mary Addison were born exactly two weeks apart. We all look forward to them getting together as much as they do. One of their favorite activities is a princess style show and they play their parts perfectly.

Then, within 25 months beginning at the end of June 2008, we were blessed with five little boys - our posse. We all look forward to the changing dynamics of this adorable bunch of boys.

The two older of these five, Jack and Zac, really connected this year. They were inseparable doing important things and sharing everything from toys to ideas.

The next two, Trey and Eli, got along well too. They didn't play together quite as consistently but they always had good ideas.

Dane who just turned 1 in August wasn't quite ready to spend all his time with these guys but I'll bet next year he'll be right in the middle of the fray.

And who could have predicted that this past year we would be blessed with a granddaughter on October 1st and less than a month later, our first great granddaughter.

Before we know it they'll be having their own style shows.

Of course there were many alliances prior to this last group of nine. Noah and Ethan from Louisville are buddies.

and Anna and her cousin, Jenna, from Belleville Michigan are BFFs for sure - with or without their fashion glasses.

Katie from the DC area and Emily from Nebraska are close but Emily doesn't get to spend as much time here as we'd like because she spends time with her Dad in South Bend too. Here are Katie and Emily with our first 7 grandsons.

The two Nebraska brothers and the two boys from Colorado Springs along with Jeremy from Belleville and David and Matthew from DC also hang out together and play all the latest video games.

The one last grandchild is now the mom of our three great grandchildren and she hangs out with the rest of us grown-ups.

So it's a busy, fun week and not just for the younger set. The older kids (ours) get to spend some welcome time together too.

Here are our first two, Lori and Amy, in party mode.

And our middle two, Dan and Dave, in party mode, too (although they never seem to leave that Army officer persona far behind).

And finally our two youngest, Beth and Sarah, in Bing Bong mode. This was their best performance EVER. Someday I hope they'll let us record and post it - they brought down the house this year.

Of course lots of other things went on this week too. We had a birthday party for Trey and Mr. Right because both their birthdays are within a week of Christmas.

Cooking was always a joint effort.

We had ice cream cones every night, a tradition I borrowed from my mother who always made ice cream cones for the kids. Now, young and old line up to get their cones and it makes their grandma's heart swell with pride and love.

We also played poker every night. Since we were such a large group, we played at two tables side-by-side and rotated someone in and out of each table every 12 minutes. This system kept the crowed mixed and the game lively!

We did lots of other things too including going out for lunch TWICE, Christmas shopping, a rockin' New Year's Eve party, and just hangin' out and catchin' up. I'll write more about those activities in Parts 2 and 3.

For this post, I hope I've conveyed what an awesomely beautiful week it was and what a blessed mother, grandmother, and great grandmother I am.

Because it just doesn't get any better than it was that week!

Giraffes

No doubt 'Giraffes' seems like an unlikely subject for a blog post but while I was browsing my pictures looking for the best ten from 2011, I came across a couple of giraffe pictures that I would have included had we been able to submit more than ten but since we couldn't I decided to write a post about them instead. Then I remembered another interesting incident involving giraffes and I thought about all the interesting observations I'd made about them over the years and decided to just write it all out - complete with pictures.

Here we go:

The first giraffe that I photographed was in a drive-through zoo not too far from Branson, Mo. I was so proud of this picture because it was as close to a close up as I'd ever gotten. (Of course, I could hardly miss since he was right there in our faces.)

That's the top of the car window above his head. He was so friendly and curious!

The next time we really watched giraffes was with our son, Dan, and his family at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans. It was such a nice herd and they were so gentle and lovely. What we didn't know is that they were also innovative. They obviously found no reason to walk over to the water trough when there was perfectly good water right there where they stood.

Here's the lovely herd.

Here's the fountain:

Here's someone getting the innovative idea:

And then......drink up!

We had close encounters with giraffes again this past spring when we visited the Rocky Mountain Zoo near Colorado Springs again with Dan and his family. We found the giraffes here extra friendly. Notice they didn't even flinch when we stood under them or even held one of their legs.

Of course most of the giraffes at this zoo were actually real and they were actually pretty friendly. They let me get more giraffe close-ups:

And then they showed that they have really long tongues.

They were patient with anyone that wanted to give them a treat.

They chatted with Mr. Right and Dan.

They knew where the treats were even when they couldn't see them.

And they were rewarded.

But suddenly something got all their attention and I loved how every one of them was interested and curious.

The object of interest was a large tortoise being coaxed out of a wagon up to a higher level.

And then just as suddenly somebody must have said, 'okay break it up' and they went back to what they were doing.

All that took place within a span of about two minutes. I really like giraffes. In many ways I think they're a lot like humans. Except, of course, for that special drinking fountain thing.

You Capture - Top Ten of 2011

Beth's You Capture this week is 'Top Ten of 2011'. This is one of my favorite You Capture projects so it's inexcusable that I didn't start on it until last night. I require much more time than that since so many of my 2011 pictures are filed in different folders; however, a quick perusal resulted in the following:

Our earliest blooming flower - the Lenten Rose.

Our most colorful winged visitor - the rose breasted grosbeak.

An unwelcome squirrel trying to push around our decorative bunny.

Sunset on Lake Michigan.

And in the harbor.

A cheeky little house finch.

Majestic blooms from our Sum and Substance hosta.

Our grandson-in-law showing his son some of the sights in our pond.

An alert meerkat living up to it's reputation for inquisitiveness and vigilance at the Rocky Mountain Zoo near Colorado Springs.

The deteriorating boardwalk on my favorite trail in Indiana Dunes State Park.

My two favorite princesses - both my namesakes - Tessa Mary and Mary Addison born two weeks apart!

To see many more varied and beautiful pictures from 2011, visit Beth's I Should Be Folding Laundry.