Christmas Memories!

Somehow we made it through Christmas without a nice family photo in front of our tree this year!  So, I'll have to share a photo of our Christmas angel with the tree instead.

Oops!  Not so much of an angel is he!

Of course, Jason celebrated his 1 year anniversary with us on Christmas morning.  DD gave him a bubble machine because he had so much fun chasing the soap bubbles the girls did for him at college.  Unfortunately, the noise from the machine scared him.........reminds him of the vacuum.  



Best Gifts - 
DD loved this one.........

It's completely put together now and I've had a lesson in how each component was used in the first lunar landing.  Her other favorite gifts were Pampered Chef oven mitts and Starbucks hot cocoa K-cups.

Fire pit!  The hubs made this himself!  It only cost the price of one trip to the doctor's office for stitches, tetanus shot, and antibiotics!

We tried it out on Christmas evening.  It was a little cold.  I had a quilt over me, but needed one under me to block the breeze coming up through the lawn chair.  He is working to set the concrete slab into the ground today.

David's nephew got my in-laws this for Christmas............it's a digital picture frame that is motion censored and uses wifi.  We can all just upload photos to it from our phones anytime and they will see the pictures.  So, Christmas afternoon, we were all standing around it with our phones and sending pictures to it.  Elliott can manage it remotely from his computer for them.  And the big news from the Bentley side is that Elliott and Andrea got engaged!

Here is the whole group!

We were in Bethany the weekend before Christmas.  This was the first time in 2 years that all of us were together.  I think the college age (1 just graduated from college in December) boys were amazed at how much the high school boys had grown........they're all pretty tall.  The youngest, 14, is about the same as the others, and I predict will still be growing for awhile in order to grow into his arms.  He was teased about his knuckles scraping the ground.
We decided to recreate this photo of the grandkids.

And this is what we got..............

They are 22, 20, 17, 21, and 14.

My sister and I also thought it would be fun to update this Easter photo..........

Yes, DD definitely needed a chair!

I think my sister was trying to update some other photo here, but can't say that my brother and I were really enjoying the attempt.

Our family group photo.
And more fun memories........

 We did snacks and appetizers for supper.  I brought the stuff for portobello fries and everyone was in on the action of frying.

Lots of card games were played, and Jackson won at John Wayne Opoly.

When there was time to sew, I worked on finishing up this top.  It was the Secret Santa mystery from Temecula Quilt Co.  The little red squares finish at .75".  It is just the size of the top of my dining room table.

Hoping you all had a Merry Christmas and made some wonderful memories!
Christi