So... obviously I am very late in posting the rest of our Christmas pictures. I finally have time. We are on vacation. I am thanking God for the r&r coming my way.
There is no way that I will forget this Christmas. We had our small family Christmas on Christmas Eve. Grandpa and Grandma Schaurer came to celebrate with us. We had a very enjoyable evening. We fondued steak and chicken. Ken deep fried vegetables. It was all very yummy! The problem was the kids did not like the food, but they had a good time frying our meat! We also dipped pretzels and other good stuff in white and milk chocolate. It all tasted good!
Brett, Briana, and I headed to Bev's Christmas morning. We had silo issues so Ken had to stay home. We had a yummy lunch with Mom and Dad R, Clem's, Travis, and Holly. We were working to get things together for everyone else arriving that evening. The fun started when Andre' woke up from his nap throwing up! We were sure it was just a one time thing, right??!! We were so wrong. He continued to throw up while the rest of the clan arrived. We enjoyed supper and some visiting and then it hit Bev. So we decided we had better move out. Kip's and Russell's drove back home. Dave's decided to go home with us since they have a 3 hour drive home. By Saturday noon the Bowman household had recovered so we all headed back to finish Christmas. Mom had bleached everything. We figured we were already exposed so we better just enjoy our weekend. We were pretty sure it was a 48 hour incubation period so we lived it up till Sunday evening.
It hit Maebrianna at 10 pm Sunday night and from there people started dropping like flies. Till Monday morning, there were 7 more sick. Then 48 hours later it made another round that wasn't quite as many as the first. Needless to say, this Christmas will go down in our history!
We did all have a wonderful time together. It is always a little bit like a zoo. We have Steph's 4 older children and then 9 children under Brett. It is a rip roaring good time atleast for the kids. The parents spend a lot of time fixing issues and cleaning up messes, but we would not trade it! You can tell that in all the commotion I did not take very many pictures.
Bev called me one morning and wondered if we had room for them. The weatherman was calling for yet another snow storm and they thought maybe they would like to avoid it. So they arrived Tuesday morning. We did not have the greatest weather, but we spent some time on the beach and in the sun. The pool was cool because we had had a cool weekend so there was no fun in there. We found a nice large blue crab on the beach that day. All the kids were brave enough to hold it! Thanks for coming, Bowmans, we enjoyed the time spent together.
Kip, Amy, and their family spent our last week with us. We had some good weather and lots of fun! The kids had a great time making a sandcastle and just digging in the sand. I am continually amazed at their imaginations!
Cameron was just not so sure about the pool, but he had fun on the steps!
We celebrated Sami's first birthday! She enjoyed her cupcake very much. Mom and Dad came down and celebrated with us! Happy 1st Birthday, Sami! We pray that you have many more! We are also glad that you warmed up to us after a whole week in the same four rooms!
We left Lakeland on Saturday morning by way of Plant City heading to Marco Island where we plan to get a little R&R. We picked up a flat of strawberries, a half a box of tomatoes, and a half a box of avocados. It has made for some good eating while we have been here.
Merry Christmas to all the Ralph and Lois Schaure clan who were unable to make it. We love you and missed you. Merry Christmas!!
