Janzen Family Christmas 2013

 

This is the time of the year when I lose track of what day it is. A time when every other day feels like a Saturday or a Sunday. And even though yesterday was a Sunday it did not feel like it as we packed up our car in the morning to head to the lakehouse.

 

First thing, I went next door to Abe's place to turn on the oven and then ours, since both were needed to cook the turkeys. Once they were taken care of we had a leisurely prep time, setting up tables and peeling potatoes. I had looked forward to this day very much, especially when I sensed the excitement of others in the family.

As I was thinking about writing this post, I actually thought it would have been nice to have a guest blogger. It would be so much fun to read it from another perspective. But you get me again. . . with very random photos taken quickly while I was on the go. Sometimes someone took my camera, which was very much appreciated.

So here we are . . . the original Janzen kids each caught in a moment with our sweeties. Monika with her youngest granddaughter, Anna. Helmut with his first grandchild, Makenzie and me with two of my youngest, Lacey and Teddy... who were ready for bed by this time.

 

Ah . .. someone took the camera . . . a moment in the kitchen . . . mashing potatoes and fixing gravy.

The littlest ones got to eat first. As they were waiting for their plates to be plated, Naomi read them a story. She was so entertaining, the big people ended up coming back even though we had sent them out of the kitchen.

When the kid's table was cleared it was re-set for grownups, so we had two tables near the kitchen and two in the games room. The small ones went up to watch a video while the big ones got to eat. The scene in the kitchen (getting food) looked something like this!

After the meal there was  a rush to get dishes cleared and cleaned up while the little ones kept coming to ask when we were going to open presents. Carmen brought her significant other, Pierre, who insisted on stacking the dishwasher and washing dishes. I think that if she does not keep him we will all cry.

We finally all made it into the games room! It was practically impossible to take decent pictures, but we get the idea. We did a bit of caroling. Chris and Julene shared about their move to Indonesia, coming up in the Spring, and then Mom and Abe (Oma and Opa / great Oma and Opa) handed out gifts to each great-grandchild. 

They opened gifts in order of age from 5 months to 11 years. Our out of town guests were Brandon and Kelsey with little Piper from Colorado and Ben and Kari with their girls, from Saskatoon. We missed Larissa and Tim with their boys, from Edmonton, as they were with his family on this day.
We also missed Matt, who had to work. 

It was a full house . . . it was loud . . . it was busy . . . it was precious!