Family Time

Christmas vacation is over. I am sad, I have loved having them around the last week and a half. We had a fun time though, getting together with our good friends the Jungwirths the weekend before, going out for pizza and then to see the Best Christmas Pagent Ever, so cute. The kids did an excellent job at their Christmas service on the 22nd, having 2 services with all of the kids, one at 1:30 and the other at 6:30. Christmas Eve we spent at Kara's with Paul, Cindy and Kaden, the Nowaks and the Kraftzenks and ate just appetizers. That was it- the first time Grandma Kusserow and mom and dad weren't there b/c of the weather. Then over to the Dahlke's to celebrate and eat again. Christmas Day was at mom and dads to open presents and eat, then to Jennerjohn's to visit and eat some more. All in all- lots of fun and celebrating and WAY TOO MUCH EATING!!!!!

Other highlights: Christmas celebration with Jon's extended family, out to The Wheelhouse for all you can eat pizza to celebrate Grandpa D's one month of no smoking after 55 years!!!, cousin Everett had a sleepover with us, had our visit with Deb on the 30th, celebrated Alaina's 6th birthday with a few friends, they decorated cupcakes and played together. Jon and I celebrated our good friend Joe's 40th birthday with him and several other couples on New Year's Eve, which was a lot of fun- but we were up way too late! New Year's Day was a family day- to see the new Alvin and the Chipmunks movie, then out to eat at O'Charley's thanks to a gift card from Aunt Jeanne, and then to Auntie Linda's to pick Grandma up to take her home. We ended up staying for 2 hours, visitng and playing a fun game called Eye to Eye. That was a fun, unplanned evening. Yesterday we had our friends Brad, JJ, Preston and Kalayna visit, they travel to Ethiopia to get their kids on January 28th- so excited for them! Last night was probably the most fun time for me of the whole break. I was feeling bummed that we were having to go back to our routine soon, so we called all the kids into our bed at 8:00 and daddy made up a new game called 'The Family Game.' Think of a word, tell how many letters, give the first letter of the word, and each person gets 3 guesses, the person who guesses correctly thinks of the next word. Most every word was related to our family, such as: Payton, family, Emanuel, Brewers (which Ava guessed right away!), love,Papa, etc., until dad gave a word: 5 letters, starts with 'B'. Hum, we are all thinking, guessing and can't figure it out. So, daddy gives us the first 2 letters, 'BU', still we are all puzzled, no one guesses, so daddy gives a clue, pretending to pick his nose. Payton and I looked at each other and said "booger???, that has six letters", and dad says, no- B-U-G-A-R, BUGAR, and oh were we rolling with laugther. He was certain he was right, but when your 9 year old challenges you and his mom agrees with him and not you, you have to concede that you are wrong. The vision of the 2 girls dancing on the bed pointing at daddy and saying "you don't know how to spell booger" over and over again will remain in my mind for quite some time! Dad earned the nickname of "bugar" for the rest of the game. Today was a very low-key day. We took down the tree and ornaments, went to church, worked on our adoption courses and watched football. A wonderful way to wrap up our precious family time together. I so love my family- thank you God.