Immediately following the Christmas Eve Service at church, we headed to Cincinnati for our Family Christmas Time. We started out about 9:00 PM. "Over the Mountains, through the tunnels, and to our daughter's house, we did go!" The good thing about travelling at night on Christmas Eve is that there is hardly anyone on the highways! So we arrived at our daughter's house about 7:00 Christmas Morning. Fortunately, we did not encounter any snow until we got around Columbus where we drove through snow showers with some high winds whipping it around. When we got to Cincinnati, there was quite a bit of snow on the ground from an earlier snow storm that had hit the area. But that was the extent of our driving in snow. Thanks to all of our "Prayer Partners" at Cross Road Baptist Church in Bangor, PA!
Ruth and Hugo had a fresh pot of coffee and a huge breakfast waiting for us when we arrived. We were VERY READY for it too! Following a wonderful breakfast, we...Opened Gifts, of course...what else! None of us could wait another minute.
Is there anything "ticking" in there, Hugo? All morning, Mitchell had Hugo convinced that his gift was "booby-trapped" So he was a bit reluctant to open it...and held off as the last one to open their gift.
Keep going, Hugo!
"Santa" did good! Hugo is an artist and was in need of some Gesso (which prepares the canvass) and lots more paints. Needless to say, Hugo was quite surprised and very happy.
And as you can tell...we all got a bit "silly", but we had fun.
Mitchell and I were greatly surprised and very pleased with Ruth & Hugo's gifts for "Mom & Dad"; there was a DVD of "The Passion"; a "Pastor's Placque" of encouragement to keep preaching the Word, no matter what.
But there was a BIG SURPRISE coming!
Ruth & Hugo had taken a picture from a family get-together taken this summer at Pascal's second birthday party (Pascal is Peter's son.) They enlarged the picture, framed it, and then inscribed it with "But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" from Joshua 24:15. How appropriate! That has long been a very important verse to us. Thank you, Ruth & Hugo!
Ruth Ann's Christmas Wish List to "Santa" was an NIV Commentary on Job, and "Praying God's Word" by Beth Moore. There was a bonus included with the Beth More book...it included a "Praying God's Word" journal. "Santa" remembered that Ruth Ann loves to journal!
Whenever there is a family get-together, there is constant competition in taking the pictures. Hugo's phone does videos, and so it is fun to watch the action immediately after it happens. Remember "back in the day" when we had to take the pictures/movie videos to the store to get processed and then WAIT several days before you got them back to view??? Now, you can see your pictures/videos immediately! Amazing! (Well, to us "old folks", anyway.
Well, that was Christmas, Part One...but there was more to come! Like... all of us taking a nap for a while!
Then came Christmas night. Hugo and Ruth had invited their friend, Corey, to join us for Christmas Supper. (Corey's family lives out west in another state). So, we invited him to have Christmas with our family! It turned out to be a grand affair...even "Pooh-Bear" was excited to have so much company!
"Pooh-Bear" loves his humans, and he was especially glad to see his friend, Corey, again.
Ruth was quite the hostess that night! She loves to cook, and this was not going to be a "missed opportunity"!
And, of course, Hugo is her "Helper" and constant encourager.
Lots of Preparations!
But at last, the Grand Feast is ready...And so are we!
Ruth calls us together for a delicious supper.
"Kuddo's" to the Chef...Well done, Ruth!
And to top it all off, Cory brought the dessert...sinful...but it sure satisfied everyone's craving for chocolate! M-m-m-m-m!!!! So good!!!! Thank you, Corey!
Following supper, we had a Christmas "Sing-A-Long". Hugo plays the guitar (and has a beautiful voice). He discovered a song that he wanted us to sing called "God Will Make a Way". Hugo printed out the music for us,so we could sing it together. It's a wonderful song. This was the first time I have had opportunity to play the piano with Hugo. We all then began to sing together our favorite Christmas Carols...a moment of worship in song. What an appropriate way to close the day with a musical celebration of our Lord coming to earth to provide us with His Gift of Salvation. Thank you, Jesus! And so concluded Christmas Day-Part Two. We all had a lovely time together.
Now for Family Christmas-Part Three! The next day, Sunday, was to be our celebration with all of the family at Dave & Nadine's house. Unfortunately, Peter and his family could not be there, due to conflict in scheduling. (But I will later share pictures taken on December 19th when our kids had Christmas together). Dave & Nadine's family always celebrates Christmas Day with Nadine's parents. So, this day was when we could get together with Dave's family. Isaac, the perfect host, greets us at the door.
Their Christmas tree was lovely and stood expectantly to receive new gifts under it's branches!
Isaac could not wait to show Uncle Hugo the "flying" helicopter he got for Christmas!
Check out the green, white and gold throw pillows on the floor beside the couch...it's a little hard to see at first, but the helicopter (in the middle) is taking off from there!
Not to be outdone, Zoe shows Aunt Ruth, her new "Elmo" toy. "Elmo" is her favorite Sesame Street puppet.
It takes Zoe a few minutes to get used to all of these people in her house. Isaac assures Zoe everything is ok. After an uncertain start, before long, she is "wound up" and talks and talks!
At last, it was time to open the gifts! Isaac and Zoe were very good "Santa's Helpers." They were very good about passing out everyone's gifts, before opening their own gifts. "Santa" has to be very proud of you kids!
Isaac got a gem excavator from Grandma & Grandpa. It came with a sand block, and a dowel and mallet to chip away at the block looking for gems. The block has 8 gems in it. We hear he has already discovered several gems already.
Zoe received two pop-up books, which she loved! She loves Aunt Ruth to read to her; Zoe lost no time in pursuading Aunt Ruth to read her new books to her...right now, even!
After gifts were opened, Hugo led us in another "Sing-A-Long", as he wanted the rest of the family to learn "God Will Make a Way". He and Dave had a good time reviewing popular song groups when they were young. Hugo also shared about how different types of guitars are constructed. Very interesting.
David also loves to cook and had a wonderful Honey-Baked Ham prepared for us...David & Ruth often compare recipes. Because of Zoe, David also fixed us "Brokki" ("broccoli" in two-year old language) which is Zoe's very favorite vegetable. You should have seen Zoe clap her hands in glee, when she saw David start to prepare the broccoli!
Nadine prepared a beautiful table of goodies for us. Thanks Dave & Nadine for a lovely dinner.
A special gift for Isaac! Ruth has been working for several years on a children's story about a baby robin, based on a true experience while still living at our old house in Forest Park. She finally finished it just before Christmas this year and read it to Isaac to see what he thought of it. Upon his enthusiastic approval, she gave him the first autographed copy of the story, much to his delight! Zoe liked the story too!
There's always lots of "clowning" that goes on when our family gets together. As you can see, this day was no different! We had a wonderful day together. All too soon the celebration came to a close. But we rejoice in the Lord's Blessings of our family time together.
As promised, the following are pictures when our three kids and their children, had their Christmas on December 19th at Pete and Mollie's house. Because Pascal had "Pink Eye", Zoe could not be there, unfortunately.
Our Favorite Guys: Hugo, Peter, Dave, Pascal & Isaac
Our Favorite Gals: Mollie, Nadine, and Ruth Ann
Pete, Mollie & Pascal, and David
Pascal loves his new puppet gift. Also pictured: Pascal's daddy, Peter. Dave and Nadine.
Isaac & Pascal enjoying their time together.
"Over the river & through the wood, to Grandfather's house we did go!" Our Family Christmas was concluded with a trip to visit with Wanda's father, Howard Taylor. Hugo and Ruth were able to go with us. And "Pooh Bear" made his first long car trip. "Pooh Bear" handled the trip very well. We were a little anxious that he might get too rambunctious with Grandpa. But "Pooh Bear" seemed to know Grandpa was fragile, and was very calm with him!
"Are we there yet?"
Dad is 92 and is still alert, but his health is in decline. So this made our time together even more prescious. Both he and Hugo loves to eat at Wendy's restaurant, so that's where we went to eat supper.
It had been our intention to visit with Mitchell's family, also living in Indiana, but it just didn't work out with the amount of time we had left.
All in all, we were left with many good memories of which we can only share a few on this post. But we will cherish those memories for a long time to come.
We pray that all of you had a wonderful Christmas 2010, as well.
May you have a very Happy New Year in 2011, filled with good health and many blessings!
With Much Love,
The "Pennsylvania" Lindquist Family
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