Christmas

We have been busy with all Christmas holds. I hope that everyone had a great Christmas.
Ben and I did our own Christmas this past Monday and exchanged our gifts to each other. Here is just a few.

Ben opening his set of Foxfire books he had wanted

Me buried in my new sleeping bag! Now I can never complain that I am cold when we go camping. It is a very nice one! Thanks Ben!

On Tuesday we went up to South Carolina for just a couple days to spend Christmas with my family. We had a good time and great weather on Christmas. ( It was at least 70) All of us were there, including Korin. We did a little shopping on Wednesday and of course opened one gift. We then stayed up late playing Dominoes, so we got a late start to Christmas morning. We do the German tradition of hiding the pickle ornament and the first to find it gets to open a gift. We did that this year but had a small tree, so guess where we found it after a few minutes of everyone looking and Pop giving us hints?

Looking for the pickleAhhhh..... and there it is!! I ended up finding it! Go me! Not sure if I ever have!
My crazy brothers holding up their basketball ornaments we gave them.

We have always tried to disguise gifts to keep from guessing! It is so funny because you never know what you will find in your gift. This was one of the top ones. Korin had a huge, heavy box. In it was the huge battery pack from thier scooter, the gift was a sweater! Never would have guessed that one!!!!

This is our gift from Aunt Phyllis, a piece of hand-made Polish pottery to add to my collection.
( I added this picture for Lisa to see as well :)

Ben trying out Tim's hat

After opening gifts we took a walk to a park close by and took some family shots! They turned out pretty good! ( I will do a separte one of family shots)

Both Ben and I had to work today so we left last night. It was a short time but was full! Next week we have Christmas with Ben's family on New Years. So we are looking forward to that.