Christmas on the Homestead - Dec 2016

Last family picture of 2016 - Christmas Day

A few days before Christmas, my other set of parents, Dad and Diana, bombed up for the morning to exchange gifts and took us to lunch. Nana happily received some Rina snuggles.  

We gave them a blog book with all of our Heppner and Nehalem Bay family campouts that I've blogged about. They loved it! Such good memories. 

Nana made Hailey and Rina matching camo aprons. They are adorable! They wear them all the time. I want one!

Nana also brought Rina a beautiful cross-stitched dress from her summer vacation in Italy. So special! They also gave her the dress that is under the apron. She loves it all.  My niece, Jess, and nephew Andrew came up with them, so that was a special treat.

We had a very pleasant Christmas Eve. The kids got to open their presents from Michael's folks. Craft pillow and warm socks - Hailey was in heaven! Josiah got a camping utensil tool and alpaca socks, too. 

Rina received a sweet new outfit from them.

Michael helped Rina open her stocking first thing in the morning as soon as the big kids got up. 

Since Christmas was on a Sunday, we opened our stockings in the morning and then made the kids wait until after church to open gifts. Mom and Larry joined us.

Snapped this cute picture of Rina in her Christmas dress. This was the first time she let us put a hairband in. She loved her dress.

 Hailey in her Christmas dress. 

 Josiah - looking every bit the teenager. 

Sibling picture. Hard to get them all in one place! 

Grandma Kricket knew just what color of scarf Hailey would like!

It didn't take long for Rina to figure out how to unwrap presents. She was very meticulous and made sure it was ALL off the present and into the garbage before playing with the gift.

Michael can now reload Josiah's bullets for his hunting rifle! 

This was Rina's big gift from us. She uses it all the time. It is a working cleaning set. Now I can clean and she isn't trying to grab my broom or mop, she has her own. Love practical gifts like that!

I got a waffle maker that I use all the time and gift certificate from Michael to get my hair done. I'm so excited!

Josiah's big gift from us was this Ninja snorkeling mask. He was thrilled and tried it out in the bathtub to make sure it works. He can't wait for this summer to start river/creek walking again, using this thing. 

We got a screaming good deal on this drone for Hailey. She wanted one desperately, ever since Josiah had bought his with his own money. She was very surprised to get it. 

We gave Mom and Larry a blogbook, too, filled with all our adventures of dirt-biking and four wheeling in the Alvord Desert since I started blogging. They loved it. So glad we were able to find a gift that was meaningful for the parents this year. 

Opening gifts is exhausting for a 19 month old!

As usual, God blessed us more that we could ever hope for during this season. But honestly when it is all said and done, the only gift that matters is the gift of Jesus. What a privilege to be able to share in celebration that most extraordinary gift with our family!

God Bless,

Jackie