~Christmas Time is HERE!!~

The Lord brought my Sweetheart, and Kimberly, Noah, and my in-laws safely across the LONG miles from Az to OH.  It was a LONG move for my in-laws, but They arrived on Monday night, Dec. 4th!  Praise the Lord!!! And Thank you for your prayers!!!

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Wow! It's the Merriest Season of All...CHRISTmas...and we've been busy making treats, (and eating them :-) being together, helping my in-laws unpack, get settled, and even decorate for Christmas, Have our Church Christmas dinner, doing the Christmas program at church, Kimberly played in the God's Bible School orchestra for the Christmas program, having 43 of us gathered in our home after the GBS Christmas program for a fun Christmasy snack, etc.
Here's lots of pics to enjoy!
~IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME IN CINCI!~

 ~Christmas on our buffet!  I LOVE REDS AND WHITES!!!!  So, I decorated our dinning room in red and white, and our living room in the burlap, cotton, etc.~

 ~A Hot cocoa bar!~

~Cold days warm hearts hot cocoa and lots of Marshmallows~

 ~The kids found my old red cash register from my childhood days downstairs, and I thought it would be fun to use it as part of our Christmas decor.~

 ~On the old gas stove~

 ~I had a FREE (gratis) coffee from Coffee Emporium!!~

 ~This is one of the little girls that goes shopping with me....~

 ~I love that little skirt, leggings, legs, and boots!!  :-) ~

 ~A Christmas bear outside of Marshall's/Homegoods and Elijah, Mary, and Abigail.~

 ~Saw this gift bag that reminded me of AZ...where my sweetheart, Kimberly, and Noah were for 2 weeks.~

 ~Abigail colored this pic.~

 ~Hot chocolate with peppermint sprinkles~

 ~Our Center piece~  (excuse Mary's wallet on the table. :-) ~

 ~On the old gas stove~

 ~Our precious kiddos~

 ~My parents gave me an old case that holds a sewing machine drawer.  I didn't have a clue what to do with it, so began to pray.  Then, I went on pinterest.  I didn't really find any good ideas there, but all of the sudden it popped into my head (probably Jesus) to put my Christmas hand towels in it. ~

 ~Celebrate those you love everyday and live each day as if it were your last!~

 ~Yummy rollo, pretzel, and pecan candies.~

 ~When we decorated for Christmas Sarah begged me to let her bring up my Christmas china, since we haven't used it in years.  So, I let her! :-) ~

 ~This little Abigail reminded us SO MUCH of Sarah when she was little!~

 ~Riding "Sandy the horse" as Meijers.  Abigail said, "She's a good little horsey!" ~

 ~Breakfast cookies I made in a cute little car cookie jar I got on clearance last year.~

 ~Homemade chicken nuggets.~

 ~Kimberly sent us this SAD pic of Grandpa and Grandma's AZ after they had taken the windows out.  This house has been in the family for YEARS!!
The people that bought it plan to bulldoze it and rebuild apts. for snow birds from Flagstaff.~

 ~Abigail brings "a Kelly doll" to the manger.~

 ~Sarah's hot chocolate~

 ~Mary's hot chocolate~

 ~Elijah wearing a stash!~

 ~Sarah took a picture of the lace on her blouse and made this quote!~

  ~Christmas Tea Time~

 ~Enjoying Puffin pastries from Butterbraid. (Nice going to church with the guy who sells him, cause he passes out extras from time to time. :-) ~

  ~I put candy in these jars and Christmas trees while Abigail was asleep.  This is the next morning...when she discovered "treasures" NEARLY WITHIN HER REACH! ~

~Last year dear Aunt Nesi from our church gave us 2 sweet little angels in memory of our 2 little babies in Heaven!!  When I put them on our tree, I cried.~

 ~Abigail holding the cute little Christmas mouse that Cindy from our Colombia made us.~

 ~Christmas in the stairwell~

 ~Abigail sharing Mommy's tea.~

~One of the days we helped Grandpa and Grandma unpack was Sarah's birthday!!!
We decorated early for Christmas that year 'cause a baby was on her way!! She was due around Thanksgiving, but arrived just 20 days before 🎄! And what a sweet baby! Sarah has been such a Sweet and Fun part of our family. She's a sweetheart and very caring, Loves Jesus with her whole ❤️, loves to do random acts of kindness, loves to write sweet notes, loves to quote Odyssey and make us laugh, loves to celebrate everything...just like her Mommy 🎄☕️🍩, loves to shop at Goodwill, is good in the kitchen, loves babies, is Mommy's great friend and "right hand lady," Thinks her Daddy hung the moon, and loves her siblings! Happy 17th, Sarah! Love you bunches and oodles!! 💕💗 #Sweet17 #shesourgirl

~This is one of our all-time favorite pictures of Sarah!~

~Cousins, Isaiah and Abigail.  He helped watch her while we were working outside, and serving people food, etc.~

~We're so HAPPY to have Grandpa and Grandma close by now!!  They are still nearly 2 hours from our family, but that beats 32 hours!! :-) ~

~Unloading~

~Lunch time~

~Sherry Patton and Kylie came up and helped and made our yummy lunch!~

~Kylie and I ran to Kroger and got an ice cream cake for Sarah.  Sarah isn't much for regular cake, but enjoys ice cream cake.~

~Old time friends...Sherri P. and Sherry D. :-) ~

~Jeremiah and Elijah~

~Sarah playing her ukulele for us.  One of the songs she sang to us brought tears to our eyes.~

~Beth and Sarah being silly with Mom's walkers~

~Michael and his Dad.~

~Grandma and Abigail~

~Then on Thursday, 22 of us showed up to unload Dad and Mom's trailer.
My nephew Bryan came up with our family and was a Big help too!
Phillip said he thought it would take us 6-8 hours to unload, but the Lord helped us finish in 3 1/2 hours! :-) ~

~Mom sat in the garage and told people which room to take their boxes.  So, I told Sarah to pose with Grandma for a pic.~

~Then once their truck was empty, and we ate a yummy lunch, then we unpacked boxes and put Mom's kitchen together for her, organized her living room, and set up her china cabinet and unpacked her China for her!  The Lord helped us to get LOTS done that day!!! THANK YOU, DEAR JESUS!!

~Kimberly, Sarah, Heather, Kelly, and Beth.
It was soooo nice to have the Harveys help us that day!!~

~And it was also soooo nice to have Dad's 5 great nieces and nephews show up (the Black children) to help us.  Here's Phillip and Dad with the girls.~

~The men carrying a heavy load.~

~Dad talking to his brother-in-laws on the phone and telling them that the trailer WAS ALL UNPACKED, and that he would not have had to stay awake worrying the night before as to HOW he was going to get it all unloaded.  :-)  It was so sweet hearing the RELIEF in his voice!!~

~Eating our yummy lunch~

~It was soooo nice to have Emily come up to help us too!!~

Then, we hurried and cleaned up and got into dressy clothes and Phillip, Abigail, and I ran to a Christmas party at the Golden Lamb, and our other children and their cousin Bryan went to our Church Youth Christmas party and caroling!

 ~THE GOLDEN LAMB!~

~The Golden Lamb was started in 1803 as a stage coach hotel.  It is the longest running business in Ohio.  Lots of famous people have stayed here, including 12 US presidents and Charles Dickens!
This is the Charles Dickens room.

~Phillip worked a few days for Butterbraid Pastries during their busiest season, so we got to go to their FUN SPECIAL Christmas party at THE GOLDEN LAMB!!! ~

~Levi, Judah, and Abigail were the only children, so they hung out together.~

~The delicious salad with candied pecans~

~Prime Rib.  We loved the neat knife on your right...it reminded us of our Argentina!~

~Some carolers came by and did a great job.~

~Abigail loved the carolers~

~In the room where we were they had woolen mittens haning everywhere.  So cute!~

~It was also Josh's birthday!~

~Delish!~

~This is their signature pie.  It is called something like Shaker Sugar Pie.
The lady of the couple that first owned the hotel bought a used pie safe or cabinet for the kitchen. One day she found a hidden drawer, and in that drawer she found the recipe to this pie.  She made it, they loved it, and the Golden Lamb has made it ever since. ~

 ~Bro. Jowers took these cute pics of Abigail~

 ~Downtown Lebanon~

 ~Kimberly, Sarah, Noah, Elijah, and Mary went to our youth Christmas party. and they went Christmas caroling!~

 ~A little snow man that holds sugar that Sarah and Abigail made.~

~GBS Christmas program and our Christmasy Party!~

~Our Kimberly is in the middle~

~Mary did her hair that night.  :-)  A lady in TN gave her the fun Christmas tree blouse~

~Motto did a great job~

~Dad Sankey praying~

~The GBS program was beautiful and Christ-glorifying!~

~Kimberly And Emily~

~The kids took this pic of the outside of our house.  The kids and Phillip love colored lights, so while Phillip was gone helping his parents my dear nephew Bryan surprised them and put up our colored lights around the porch!~

 ~Laura brought over a pretty and yummy hostess gift.  A tin of edible cookie dough, and a beautiful Russian spoon.~

 ~Yummy Firecrackers~

 ~We celebrated Sarah's birthday that night...with Oreo Cookie balls. :-) ~
(She loves ice cream cake and oreo cookie balls.)

 ~Phillip visiting with Matt...and the girls visiting on the couch
There were 43 of us here that night! ~

 ~More visiting~

 ~Sooo enjoyed getting to use my beautiful punch bowl from my dear friend Lila Kemp!
 My Yummy Cappuccino punch~

 ~It was fun using scrabble letters by the food.~

 ~A table full of Yummy Goodies~

 ~My sweet friends and I~

 ~More of my sweet friends visiting in our kitchen~

 ~We took another pic of my sweet friends and I because Audrey arrived. :-) ~

 ~Happy people~

 ~Autumn, Ashley, Brittany, and Kimberly~

 ~Some of the young people playing games~

 ~Then on Saturday we drove up to see Dad and Mom and it snowed a beautiful snow that day!~

 ~Grandma and the kids playing games at her table~

 ~Our kids playing in the snow for 2 seconds after we got home from Grandma's house.~

 ~The cute snowman that Roseanne Evans sent to me our first Christmas in Colombia...2006~

Christmas time is HERE Part II is coming soon.

~HEATHER~