Merry Christmas to All!

Merry Christmas to all of you! It is just before midnight on Christmas Eve. Julia went to Midnight Mass at the Catholic Church tonight, and I am waiting up for her, so I thought I'd write a note to send our love to all of you. And, I am finally getting around to posting pics of our Christmas trees.

We spent this evening at Mama and Papa Rhien's house....Scott's parents. There were fewer of us than normal, but still quite a group. We had a fairly simple dinner with three kinds of soup, salad, rolls and lots of goodies. After dinner we opened our gifts from Mama and Papa and siblings and watched everyone open theirs as well. After visiting and taking pictures we helped clean up the kitchen and then headed out on a drive to see the Christmas lights before settling in at home to read the Christmas story and open our Christmas PJ's.

It is so fun watching the next generation enjoy Christmas. Alli charmed everyone this evening. She loved her new pajamas which were covered with cute snowmen, until she saw that Julia, Laura and I got pink pajama bottoms. She LOVES pink and wanted to trade with Julia. We finally convinced her that Julia's were too big. It will be fun to see her enjoy things in the morning.

Last night (the 23rd) was our annual Rhien/Webb dinner...a reunion of sorts for all the descendants of Maxine Rhien and her brother, Marlo Webb. There were around 65 people present, and that was probably just a little over half of the people that could have been there, but weren't in town. It is amazing to me that two people could have such an amazing progeny. Crazy stuff! It is such a big crowd that we hold it at the cultural hall at church.

Well, I have stayed up long enough now to officially say, "Merry Christmas!" We love each of you so much and have so enjoyed the blog. Our hearts and thoughts are with all of you as we celebrate this wonderful day.

The pictures above are of our two trees. The first one is our tradition family tree by day and the second is our tree by night, with lights. The other two pictures are of our smaller tree, which is more of a theme tree.

Much love, Earlene, Scott and Julia