FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS:HAVE A BLESSED AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!

'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS...

When all through the house..

Not a creature was stirring..

Not even a mouse...

The stockings were hung..

By the Chimney with care..

In the hopes that St. Nicholas soon be there..

The children were nestled all snug in their beds.....

While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.....

CHRISTMAS AT PAPAW AND MIMI'S

Jerry, Caiden and Bailee went to His mom and dad's house Sunday. This was their time that they chose to do Christmas. They had a lot of fun, ate some fried turkery and gumbo, had great fellowships, sang songs and opened gifts!!
They has a great time and got to spend time with cousins and aunts and uncles.

And they got to spend time with Papaw and Mimi!

Jerry and his father.

This is 3 generations of Ellermans. I know Mr. Larry, Jerry and Caiden will always treasure this moment, and this picture.

Papaw with his lighted teeth!

Cousin Jayden

Dinner time with the family

Caiden and his cousin Patrick

My Bailee Grace doing her favorite thing..singing her beautiful Christmas songs

cousin Anna Beth

Caiden opening up his Christmas gift from Papaw and Mimi...It was an official Red Ryder BB gun!! He loved it!! Sunday night after everyone went to bed, I went into the kids room to kiss them goodnight and made sure they were all snug in bed, I smiled as I looked at The gun sleeping beside him!! Just like in my favorite Christmas movie, "The Christmas Story" He was Ralph made over!!! AND they even have glasses, so I have been kidding around with him to "not shoot your eye out kid!!" Jerry and Caiden have spent some time outside shooting guns.Caiden had 2 other guns, He was so glad to add another one to his collection!! The Red Ryder is his favorite!

Uncle Jeff

The Girls helping out with the presents

Papaw opening gifts from us.

This was a gift from Jayden and Anna Beth to Papaw and Mimi! It is soo cute!

Jayden seemed to really love Mimi's gift!!

My Bailee Grace opening her gifts

She loved it!! She has been playing with it a lot and she stays in her room!!She loves anything to do with a fashion show!!! It's cool how it hooks up to the tv and has a remote!!

My good lookin man in his new Blazer from mom and dad!!

Caiden and his cousin Patrick shooting their BB guns

PLEASE PLEASE be careful and don't shoot your eye out!!!

SANTA'S LITTLE "PUPPY" ELVES

BUBBA
BAXTER

OUR LEANING TOWER OF GINGERBREAD

Christmas time is the best time of the year. A time for giving thanks for all we have. A time for remembering what our Lord Jesus Christ has given us. A time of remembering the miraculous birth of the Saviour child born to us. A time for families to forget past experiences and hurtfulness and for them to focus on the real meaning of Christmas.
It also a time for our children. A time for the magical visions of Santa coming down the chimney, cookies laid out for him, and making out endless wanted gift lists. Hoping that Santa grants each wanted thing on that list. What a wonderful blessing to have children, and to see their faces light up! It is a time for making cookies, candies, and little snack foods and we sit on the couch as a family watching the traditional Christmas movies. And as we do this, we are anticipating that special morning!

AND, yes, what is Christmas without the "traditional" Gingerbread house! WELL, what most people would consider a Catastrophe, turned out to be the best and most memorable experience of our family's time together!

I had purchased the Ginger Bread House kit. The kids and Jerry have been looking forward to making it. I was so excited too, and Had visions of us working together, building on family relationships, and just having fun!

But then again, NOTHING is ever perfect, even though sometimes we want it to be, and these disappointments turn out to be a blessing all on its own.

We had decided to make the Gingerbread house Saturday afternoon. We got up Saturday morning with the determination to clean out our shed and our garage. Jerry and the kids worked outside while I cleaned inside.

Time got away from us so quickly, and before we knew it, It was night time. So after supper and baths, I got everything ready, I had it all laid out , nice and neat, and called the family in the kitchen start build our Gingerbread house.

Everything was on schedule, things were going as planned. We even watched a video online in how to construct and build the house step by step.

We followed the instructions step by step on the box.

We had the icing ready, and Caiden and Bailee took turns putting the pieces together.

We held the house together, as instructed, and it seemed to work! Jerry was there to help the along, God Bless him, He is always so involved in the activities with the kids, matter of fact, he was just like a kid! He was just as excited as they were!

It looked perfect, up to this point....

We then started to apply the candy, and decorate our little people to go along with the house.

Jerry helped out so much, I was so glad he was here to help.

Caiden and Bailee decorated the little people, and they took their time, and they enjoyed it so much!

Ok, here is the house somewhat done, we were still working on it, and we were very very pleased thus far...

Then the enviable happened..the house started to cave in and collapse! We had worked so hard on it, followed every step, what in the heck happened?? After the BIG collapse, we just looked at each other, and there was silence for about 10 seconds....

THEN we all just started laughing hysterically... crazy right?? nah, we just realized that nothing is ever prefect..no matter how much we try, no matter how determined we can be about something.. it will NEVER be prefect. So, what did we learn?? Jesus is the only perfect one and thing. What a wonderful lesson we learned that night, and there is no better time to realize this then on Christmas! I really think God was trying to tell us something.

So after many laughs, we decided to just EAT the house! Yes, we wished that the gingerbread house would have held up, and looked so pretty and prefect..but we soon realized and accepted that it was the effort and the love that was put on building it. It was a time for our family to build on relationships with one another, and simply for us to help create a house that best describes how life can be rocky, unpredictable, and plainly...just unimaginable at times. But with love and creativity, we built something that was our very own!

So, we eat the house, enjoyed every little taste of it, and focused on the effort we put behind it, it is not prefect, but it represents our family time together. In a way, I am kinda glad it turned out this way! We just focused on the time we spend together, and knowing that there is only one prefect thing in this world... Our Lord Jesus, and isn't that what Christmas is all about??!!

My favorite part about building the house was that Jerry decided since we couldn't decorate the collapsed house that we could decorate Caiden! Jerry thought that Caiden would be a perfect candidate for a Gingerbread man!!

I almost cried about the fact that a father and son could have such a strong bond. Even though Jerry has been gone, their relationship never suffers, and it seems like that they always pick up were they left! I am so glad that I was allowed by the Lord to give Jerry a son!

Caiden, my little Gingerbread man!

Jerry and the kids enjoyed every bite of the house.

Jerry is an awesome dad, how blessed we are to have him!

We had so much fun, thank you Lord for unanwered prayers of prefection. This is what life is about! How we take this imperfections and grow from them is entirely up to us!