Christmas has come and gone

Well, as promised, here is a picture of our Charlie Brown Christmas tree. Our Christmas was really nice. We opened family gifts on Christmas eve (a Yoder tradition) and talked about why we celebrate Christmas and why we give gifts. Then Christmas morning we woke up, ate our delicious Christmas breakfast casserole (a Berry tradition), with our cinnamon rolls and waited for daddy to get up. It only took the kids going in 3 times to wake him up. Each time he would respond with a sleepy, "okay in 10 minutes." This is Richard's favorite response when ever he is woken up for anything. Of course, being the loving and understanding wife that I am, I didn't send the next kid in after the 10 minutes. We waited about 30, then tried again. So our gift opening finally started with stockings at about 10:00. Then Uncle Ren and Aunt Shelley stopped by on their way out of town to give some gifts to the kids and to try my casserole (as if he didn't make 4 for himself). The kids are way too lucky! They got more than they needed, but it really wasn't too much. Most of it was clothes that I either made or found at a consignment shop. So, with that out of the way we played for a bit, then made our gingerbread house. Great Christmas day activity. We found a kit that was on sale for $5 at Walmart and since I always wanted to try it out, I bought the kit. We had a lot of fun creating our little house. It stayed up for a day, then we started to eat it!! Anyway, Christmas evening we went to Denny's for dinner. There were actually a lot of people there and little serving staff, so we had to wait, but that's okay. I didn't have to cook or clean. It was a great Christmas! Since then we have been playing and working, and watching movies. I have eaten what too much junk food, gained 5 pounds, and I'm sure my teeth are about to rot out of my head. If Richard brings home one more bag of candy (he brought 3 home last night) I may have to kick him out! Just kidding of course.

I know we all worry about Jacob's health so here is the latest. I took him to the doctor and he has been put on yet another medicine for allergies and asthma (that makes 4 now). Amazingly, this one is working I think. He has finally stopped coughing, which hasn't happened since October. Hopefully we found what works and can take him off of some meds that haven't worked, in my opinion.

Abby has her own health issues. We think her ear drum has burst because of an infection and too much fluid. She just finished her atibiotics, so hopefully the infection is gone and the drum will begin to repair itself. If not, then we have to go back to the ENT and possibly another surgery. Please pray that this will not happen!

Elliott is my light in the darkness, he is healthy so far. Little sniffles here and there, but nothing to write home about.

I'll try to post more pictures, but I don't know how much time I'll have before kids interrupt!
We love you all and hope you had a great holiday!!