Mt. Hope Chronicles

I love my family.

Adore them.

I am so blessed.

This is my 42nd Christmas. I think there has only been a single year in all that time that one sister was missing on Christmas day (Holly and Casey lived in San Diego when they were first married). Other than that, we’ve spent every Christmas together—my parents, my sisters, and I (along with husbands and kids as they came into our lives). Now there are 17 of us (plus my “adopted” sister, Olive, and her son, Ben, when they are able to be with us). Not only have we been together for 42 years, but we’ve been together in this very room.



We’ve had stormy and wet (WET!) weather recently and it was supposed to rain Christmas day, but the sun came out for the afternoon and we were able to go for our traditional after-dinner walk—all 17 of us, since no one wanted to be stuck in the house doing dishes!



Sweden fell asleep in my arms half way through the walk. I planned it just right, since I got to snuggle with a sleeping baby after our walk instead of doing dishes. [grin]
We were realizing that we’ve never been without a child 4 years or younger (more often 2 or younger) at Christmas since Ilex was born almost 20 years ago.



It’s a wonderful life.