December 27

Friday in Findlay, we got a little bit more done than on our very lazy Thursday.  Tim ran a few more errands for his Mom while I did a few things around her place, then we all went out to lunch at the Mediterranean restaurant nearby.  Four of us had gyros, and Zach had a burger.

On our way out of town, we had to stop a Dietsch's.  It's kind of a thing with us!

Back in Cincinnati (at about 8:15 PM) we arrived at my Mom's house to pick up Josey.  She had port roast waiting for us in the crock pot.  What a huge blessing.

December 26

Thursday morning, Don and Lori left before we were even out of bed.  A lazy day ensued for all  of us!

Zach made Chex mix.  Delicious!

Grandma Case even joined us for a game of Skip Bo and Telestrations in the evening:

LIGHT

Christmas morning: Santa's gifts awaited the boys when they woke up:

They read from Luke before going downstairs.

Happily opening gifts.  Besides Santa gifts, they got calendars, shirts, popcorn, and a nerf dart target.

Goober's gift from Jeremy:

We cleaned this mess up a little, but not much, before heading to Tim's mom's place in Findlay.

Christmas dinner with Tim's mom, Aunt Lori, and Uncle Don:

Just a couple more gifts!

A hotly contested game of Chicken Foot:

Telestrations:  (many, many laughs!)

After Zach went to bed, Jeremy came out to help Tim, Lori, and I on this puzzle (started by Don). To say that Jeremy was peeved about the missing pieces may be an understatement!

JOY

December 24.  Christmas Eve.  Christmas Eve always sort of overshadowed Christmas itself when I was a kid.  Santa came for a personal visit, and he even left his gifts!  This year, we had a very busy day.  We arrived at Grandma Hicks' house at noon, with presents in tow.  We exchanged gifts with Mom and Mike and Louise and girls.  Mom then served us french onion soup and Applebee's Asian chicken salad.  Delicious!

 At 3:00, we left Mom's, stopped at home, and headed over to church.  After a fun service lead by the youth praise band, we were ready for the next stop, Pam's house.

 We enjoyed Pam's lovely house, plenty of great food, watching Mikailah open gifts, and a fun yankee swap.  At the last minute, Zachary decided to join the Yankee swap, so we stopped at Kroger where he picked a gift.  He wound up with a cordless drill for his prize.

 Santa paid us a visit, too!

NEIGHBORS

Kind of a dull day here.  The boys went out shopping this afternoon, and I invited Mom over to eat some soup with me.  We finished the puzzle.  I made some sloppy joe to take to Findlay.  We visited with a neighbor's cats.  The boys will be cat sitting for them soon.

Boys' shoes after playing outside yesterday (found them there this morning):

My dear husband could tell I needed a little pick me up, so we headed over to Vineyard Cincinnati Christmas Concert.  Great music.  Good fun.  Worked like a charm!