Holiday Service and "A" Time.

 My Mother-in-law is so cool.  I am so blessed to be a member of this K family.  They are amazing to me.  I have been bragging about my Mother-in-law ever since I returned home from Idaho.  She constantly amazes me.  One brief example:  since we were there for a funeral, there were a lot of relatives there that we hadn't seen in a while.  Mom answered the door for one such relative.  In the course of their conversation, Mom was asked how many grandchildren she had.  She replied, "16, but only 13 of them were able to be here."  She was talking about MY three kids.  No qualifications or exclusions.  She just counts them as her grandkids and she treats them as such.  I cannot express how much that means to me.  I hope that I can be just like her.

Another cool thing that Mom does is have a service for the grandchildren (and children) to participate in each year.  This year, it was making school kits for disadvantaged children throughout the world.  Since we were not planning to visit Idaho any time during the holidays, she shipped a box to us.  The kids were so excited.

 We first organized all the items so that we could then make kits.

 It quickly became an assembly line and each child was able to fill the bags with the necessary school supplies.

 The next day was our last day to have all four kids together.  We went to a yogurt place and hung out at the park.  It was a lot of fun.  These four are so good together and I am glad that they have each other as they grow up.  I am truly blessed.  I frequently still mourn for the loss of our baby, but I just have to look at these four smiling faces and remember that I have been truly blessed with children that I love.

 After our outing, we had a sibling present exchange.  The four won't be together again until March.  CK and I will see A much more frequently, but we usually fly to see A when K, C, and J are with their dad.  So any gifts to or from A were done November 23rd instead.  It was fun.

CK told me that I had to include a picture of me.  I guess he is right, there aren't a lot of pictures that have me in them....I usually am the photographer.  :)