Our Family Christmas Album

The month of December was pretty well filled with family gatherings, caroling, and other traditional Christmas activities. It was a blessing to spend time with much of our extended family! 

Family Gathering #1: Christmas with the Bill Massner family at Skylines in Peoria.

Levi and Max are the two newest great-grandchildren! 

Levi's FIRST EVER Christmas gift (a booster high chair for when he gets kicked out of his current high chair in a few months). Thank you, Great-Grandma!

Family Gathering #2: Christmas with the Myron Schulz family at Mom and Dad's.

Mom's activity for the evening: Schulz family Bingo! 

Family Gathering #3: Christmas with the Richard Schmidgall family in Minnesota.

The creative new activity idea for this year: Christmas caroling on a hay rack through the streets of Hancock. So much fun! The weather cooperated well, and several people looking out their windows seemed to appreciate the Christmas cheer! 

Levi and Kortlen were the two newbies at the Schmidgall Christmas. They were both entertained by the singing snowman! :) 

Family Gathering #4: Christmas with the Ezra Knobloch family in Lester.

Family interview! 

Kyra and Levi

Levi meets Great-Grandma (Marie) Knobloch for the first time!
(Brain teaser side note: As one may have deduced, Levi is fortunate enough to have TWO Great-Grandma Knoblochs. Yet he still doesn't have an ounce of Knobloch blood in him. Hmm...??)

Kellan brought this shopping cart with him to Lester, so Levi got to have some fun pushing it around! 

Family Gathering #5: Christmas with the Chuck Massner family. 

As some may know from previous years, the program is typically a highlight. This was the front cover. :)

Grandpa got a big chair for Christmas! 

The Christmas band (Levi was the new addition this year on the maracas). 

Family Gathering #6: Christmas with the Gary Schulz family.

All the kids with their red balloons! 

Three new babies in 2016! Levi, Krista, and Weston bring the grandchild tally up to 15!

Family Gathering #7: Christmas with the Matthew Schulz family!

We planned to celebrate Christmas together as the three of us on New Years Day. Matt got sick during church and spent the afternoon in bed while I worked on supper and played with Levi. Eventually Levi went down for a nap, too, so I enjoyed a quiet afternoon of coloring in my new coloring book. :)

They both woke up just in time for supper, and since Matt was feeling better, we resumed our Christmas plans. A nice meal for supper, homemade grape sorbet (I mixed a couple tablespoons of corn syrup with three cups of the slightly-sweetened grape juice concentrate I made from our grapes in August, and put it in our ice cream freezer until it was done. Yummy!), and a few gifts for Levi from his great-grandparents.

We enjoyed the quiet evening to ourselves after a busy two weeks of constant activity!

Our first Christmas as a family of three! A pregnant mom + a sick dad + a confused boy on self-timer = one beautiful family photo. 

In the meantimes of December:

Matt did eventually complete his insulated box for the cattle tank. This isn't necessarily the finished product, but it is out in the horse pasture and seems to be serving its purpose. 

Levi found the go-cart in the shed and had fun driving it! 

Great-Grandpa Schulz brought this chair home from Texas last winter for Levi, and now he thinks he is pretty special when he sits in his chair to watch the fire! 

Yep, it's been another month for this boy, too! He turned 11 months old on Christmas Day, hence the Christmas pajamas. The highlight of this month was learning to use some words: mama, dada, ah-da (all done), old-old (cold), ot-ot (hot), nana (banana), baba (bottle). 

Matt is now busy on yet another project, this time for Levi's birthday gift! He has made a lot of progress the past few days. We will share photos when it is completed! 

And then there is me...the condition of my house would indicate that I have not kept busy, but I have actually been doing everything besides housework. :) Hopefully now that things are settling back down after the holidays, things will get caught up. I came to the startling realization this week that we only have one more month to wait for the baby, and there is a lot on my to-do-before-baby list! I am thankful to be feeling very well and for good reports from the doctors.

We hope you felt the Lord's blessings this Christmas, and that you will seek His presence throughout 2017!