Fixing Fur

Mrs. R. from church asked if I would fix a fur coat a friend had given her a while back.  I've never sewn fur before but it turned out well - and I was even able to find propper coat clasps online to replace the missing ones!

Finished!

Christmas Gathering!

Christmas with Dad's family was extra fun this year - two of our cousins had had babies a couple days apart in November!  

It was such fun to meet Elizabeth and Olivia in person!  Such cuties!!

Great-grandma, grandma, mom, and baby!

Great-grandma, mom, and baby.....missed getting baby's grandma though.

Three cheers for 2016! =D

So much good food!

Grandma looking at books with some of her great-grandchildren.

Amy and Jade

No gathering is complete without a good card game!

New Years Eve!

We had our friend Michelle over for the evening, while Dad and Mom went to a New Years Eve event at church.
It was good to think back over the year together and the things we are thankful for, and the lessons we've learned. =)
We girls  made pizza together, played LIFE, and then watched a movie and some Sue Thomas FBEye shows. It was a fun evening!

Happy 2016!!!

Christmas Eve

 Caleb and Ana came up for Christmas Eve and stayed over for a couple days!  Ana was not feeling so well (she had pinkeye) so she stayed at our house, but the rest of us went to the Christmas Eve service at church.

 My favorite part is when we light our candles and sing Silent Night. =)

 When we got home we ate dinner and then opened gifts! 

Merry Christmas!!

Miss Abby

 

Amy and I enjoyed watching our friend's two little girls 

while their mom was at band practice for the Christmas Eve service.  

I spent the most time with Abby - such a sweetie!  

 =D

An Exciting Afternoon, and a Christmas Program

Yesterday afternoon was definitely unusual, to say the least!!

Amy and I arrived at work to find CC (our boss) on the phone. That was not so unusual, but when she got off the phone she said that the mail had arrived and the carrier had given her a package.  She hadn't paid much attention to the box until the person left, since they were visiting.  But when she did look at it she noticed that it was from Israel, had a Arabic sounding name as the sender, and seemed to have been *held up in customs for a few months. There was a website on the box and she said all she could find out was that the site **sold military supplies.  It all seemed suspicious, so she left it outside and called the police to see what she should do with a potentially suspicious package.  (Another reason she was concerned was that they had been having mail stolen and wondered if someone was using their address....)

The police sent out a lady officer and she talked with CC and looked at the package. She said there seemed to be something liquid inside, so she did some checking in her vehicle and called out another officer.  This man came and asked CC more questions, (are you Jewish, have you been to Israel, do you have relatives there, etc). Both police officers were very nice. About then I had to leave to pick up "Baby Buttersnaps" and "Honey Ham" from school.  When I got back to the house there were the two patrol SUVs in the front driveway, plus a huge semi-like vehicle and another truck parked along the road, and firemen walking around in all their gear. Apparently they had sent out the bomb squad!

After a bit there was a knock on the front door from a few of the firemen.  They had opened the box and inside.......was a bottle of wine from Israel! There was an invoice and CC's brother had sent it as a Christmas gift, which was out of character for him, so she had never thought of it being from him. The wine is from Galilee and is made from the same kind of grapes used during King David's time.  So apparently it could be the same kind of wine he drank. One of the firemen had been stationed in Israel while in the military and said their wine was very good. 

All that suspense made for an exciting afternoon! =D

*Afterwards we realized that he box hadn't been held up in customs, the date was just written in the European order.=)

**Apparently the wrong website address!

All the way from Israel.

After all that excitement, we had dinner and then Amy and I took "Honey Ham" to her school Christmas program and saved seats for the rest of the family.  It was a nice program!