Christmas 2016

First, a few pictures......

On Christmas Eve, Charlotte and Josephine made the 'snowman' donut treats to bag up and deliver to our friends.

My job was to make the banana bread - well, it was Rachel's job, but, she was working, so, literally as I was gathering ingredients and reading a recipe to make banana bread (which I have never made), I hear a knock on our door.  It's our Sister Missionaries!  Sister Galloway, pictured above, and Sister Bottorf, pictured below!  They said, Hey Sister Ball, we were just in your neighborhood and we thought we should stop in and say hello.  I said, Come on in.  Do y'all bake?  They both were thrilled and said, I would love to make your banana bread.  They didn't need a recipe or anything.  Amazing.  It's a Christmas miracle!  Such sweet girls and I still don't know how to make banana bread.

Thank you ladies!

On Christmas, JMichael was the official gift passer-outter.

Mom made us table runners - five different ones for the changing seasons, so we can see her on our table all year long.  This is most challenging for poor Josephine, who usually has "her" table covered in some sort of project.  This poinsettia was free from WalMart - it comes with a story.  After Christmas, there was a full cart of poinsettias in the center aisle and the sign read, "Free".  Mom had come to see us for a couple days (she flew in and out of Kansas City and spent most of the time with David and his family - but, she headed south to see us, too) and of course we hit WalMart while she was here.  We saw the cart of free poinsettias and decided when we finished getting our other stuff that we would pick one up on the way to the check out.  So we gathered what all we came for and as we headed to the check out, Charlotte was disappointed to see a child (Indian, dressed in a sarong and very pretty, about 10 years old), pushing the whole cart of poinsettias with her family to the check out.  Josephine said, quietly, to Mom, hey, that Indian girl is taking our Christmas poinsettia, that's not right.  We all kinda stood in disbelief as Mom gently walked over to the little girl and said, politely, "Do you mind if my granddaughter chooses one of your free poinsettias?  We wanted to take one home, too."  The little girl obliged Charlotte chose our poinsettia.  We now have the story of the free Indian poinsettia.  A new Christmas classic!