All the random pictures post Christmas

 

Ruth sewed a lot for Christmas

 Here are some of the awesome and pretty things Ruth sewed for Christmas. Not all of my kids are good at posing for pictures.

Christmas 2023

 I am really late on this post. But here it comes, plus all the other ones I need to get to past Christmas. We went into the Christmas 2023 with nothing for Christmas and I told no one because well, things have always been tough for us financially and I feel more at peace generally keeping it quiet. But, early in December, a friend of mine on the Marine base, gathered a bunch of used toys for us from people who were getting rid of things, plus some things her kids personally donated to our kids. And provided Christmas for my 5 youngest, plus one or two things each for the older kids. And all of it was used and free and made my kids really happy. Half way through December, I went shopping with some of my older kids to see what we could do for the older kids in the family. We went to Barnes and Noble and Arwen used her birthday money to buy a present for Kate. At Barnes and Noble, Adam suggested we try out Second and Charles. That was a good idea. We were in Second and Charles and we were finding some good deals on some used books when the couple in the same isle that we were in said get used books, they are buy two get two free. I immediately questioned them about that. They said there had been an announcement a few minutes ago. So I found an employee and asked and it was true and we were able to get good presents for Josh, Arwen, Johnny, Ruth, Joseph, Rachel, and Anya for about $65. Then we went to Hobby Lobby and found just what Adam, Arwen, and Susan wanted for $35. At home, Johnny, Adam, and Joseph out their money together with a little from me and we got Josh the present he wanted. Johnny was able to get really good deals $20 for two coveted switch games. In October, Adam had bought a bunch of books for Ruth for Christmas. Rachel had some money saved and got a big Lego set for Arwen and Susan. A few days before Christmas, the kids got a total of $35 each from their grandparents. Then we got two unexpected boxes from John’s brother with presents for the whole family. My friend and another brother of John’s each gave us Amazon gift cards, which we have used for necessities. Anyway, we went from expecting one of our poorest Christmases to having one of our biggest Christmases on the books. 

We also had quite a lovely Christmas season. We did a family Christmas activity together every night between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Some of those were a ginger bread nativity activity and pizza party at our friends baptist church, doughnuts and the movie, “A Christmas Story”, machine gun sandwiches and the movie “Die Hard”, making gift boxes for our neighbors, friends at the park, singing carols almost almost nightly, word finds, celebrating Joseph Smith’s birthday, reading “Hercule Peroit’s Christmas”, and more.

And here we are in 2024 and my prayer for the New Year is that I can start selling enough of my books to make enough money to support my family and that my kids have more social experiences. Rachel’s prayer is that she meets her true love and can marry at 18 or 19.