Christmas 2011

Christmas 2011 has come and gone. The waiting and anticipation of Christmas is always so great, and within a matter of hours, it comes to a close.

We started our holiday off celebrating with Grandma Rucks, Great Grandma Beck, and Aunt Kim & Jeff, during lunchtime on Christmas Eve. Aunt Kim surprised Muluken and Tinsae with an authentic Ethiopian dish, doro wat. Both boys loved it!

After eating a lot of awesome food, we opened presents and just visited with each other. It's so nice to be able to talk, relax, and just enjoy each others' company.

Aunt Kim, Tinsae & Great Grandma Beck

Brad and I went home, fed the animals, put the new presents under the tree, and then went back to pick up the kids. We were off to Aunt Kris' & Uncle Steve's home for Christmas Eve dinner. Again, more great food and lots of laughs. 

We were packing up to get ready to head home a little after 8pm when their home phone rang. It was an emergency phone call from the county police requesting them to lock all their doors and stay in their home. There had been a shooting in the area and the man was still at large. SCARY!! We stayed in the basement until 9:30pm and decided to make our getaway. Jordan and Noah were not so sure of our decision to leave, but ran for our van. (The man was not found until the following afternoon and is now charged with first-degree attempted homicide charges for shooting his brother-in-law!)

On Sunday morning, we watched the kids open their presents from Santa and then headed to church. We thought the church would be packed, so we were there by 9:20am for 10am mass. We were the third car there! Unbelievable! There was hardly anybody at our mass. It was so weird.

 (Can you tell which kids just woke up and which ones had been up for hours!)

We then were off to Grandma Lenz's house to celebrate Christmas with my side of the family. We ate, we talked, we laughed, we played games, and we opened presents. We had a great time once again with the family but were exhausted when we arrived at home Christmas evening.

 Muluken, Casey, Tinsae & Justin

Mason & Noah

 Kendra & Maddy

Erin & MaKayla

Brad, Jordan & Cassie

Brad & I

Cassie & Jordan

Jordan, Cassie & Erin

Jordan, Tinsae, Cassie & Erin

Erin, Cassie & Jordan playing a card game

Everybody was stuffed and just wanted to relax. Well, that would be everyone except Tinsae. He was HUNGRY and had to eat some food at 7pm! LOL!

We are so very blessed to have our extended family live close by and be able to celebrate Christmas with all of them.