December's Blessings

Blessings and Love to all!

We were blessed by a December filled with normal routine, school break, a mini family vacation to San Antonio, relaxing/playing games, Christmas and holiday fun. We are beyond blessed and thankful for all God has done for us and in us...here are a few snapshots of some of the blessings of December...

...helping Mommy bake...

 ...thanks to G'ma for sending this floor puzzle...

...brothers helped sister put it together...

...Kirk finally got a cat from the animal shelter...

...he loves Sebastian lots, and Sebastian I think knows he is Kirk's cat...

...he had lived inside all his life, but Sebastian is finally starting to like it outside...

 ...within 1 minute of this boy picking him upon arriving home from class day, he is asleep in his arms-LOL!...

 ...everyone had to see if the cat would really let Kirk give him a bath, and the cat let him...

 ...he thinks he is human-lol!, he really is transitioning outside...it may not look like it here, but the goal was for him to be an outside cat, and he is truly transitioning great, but likes it when Kirk spoils him for a bit...

...LOL, these two...if the cat can be with Kirk he will be...

...the Living Bethlehem Nativity in Burnet...

...Amazing and definitely a place we want to go again next year...

...you could sample things along the way, see what life in Bethlehem would of maybe been like and see it re-acted in the middle of the crowded streets...

 ...fowl and poultry being sold in the market...

 ...crafting wood products...

 ...chariot of the Romans...

 ...the Inn...

 ...camels...

 ...tax collector and a Roman guard...

 ...the cave that represented the stable...

...a very typical Saturday morning...its our cold cereal breakfast morning and is accompanied by reading Calvin and Hobbes, magazines or other books and bedheads...love it and them!...

...Jason's Brownwood Lortscher Christmas Party had fun bowling...this little lady started out with the "helper" and ended "ALL BY MYSELF!"...these were her exact words!  She even hit a few strikes ;)...

...I am SO glad I had our old family sled redone!  I absolutely love it!...

...it could tell quite the stories, if it could talk :)...

 ...Christmas caroling with the school group to a nursing home...

...the first part of school break found us enjoy a mini family vacation in San Antonio...

...our first stop was the San Jose Missions Historical Museum National Park...

...well worth going to this one or any of the other Missions too in San Antonio...

...the complete compound was very interesting and so full of history...

 ...this is the church with the steeple in the background...

 ...looking towards the door that goes into the church...

 ...the steeple that had the bell...

 ...cactuses grew on the roof in many places...

...the Alamo...

...looking over some old guns at the Alamo...

...we loved biking the Missions Trail along the San Antonio River...we hadn't planned on doing this, but they had bikes for rent and we had Janessa's carrier, so she road in the carrier on a back and loved every minute of it...she could be heard saying often, "Go faster, go faster!"...

...just starting out...

 ...say cheese...

...carousel at the Zoo in the evening for their light festival...

 ...camels...

 ...Janessa would of seriously brought this camel home with her if she could of!!...

...Tower of the Americas...

...Japanese Tea Gardens...

...very peaceful, serene place...we also saw from this place, a good view of the Winter Moon that will not happen again for 80 years...

...Briscoe Western Art Museum...

...fabulous western art and artifacts on display...

...the audio headphones throughout were great to listen too...

 ...a small scale model of the Alamo under attack...

...they finally convinced Dad to let them rent a couple of these to scoot around on, during some of our long walks to places...

 ...Janessa loving the ride down the riverwalk...

...the ducks were her favorite part, lol, not surprising at all!...

...someone insisted we get a pic of the two of us, since it is always the kids or one of us and the kids...

...San Antonio Botanical Gardens...

 ...a chess yard game, huge playing pieces and lots of fun...

 ...overlooking the chess court were HUGE Adirondack chairs...

 ...the excitement of Jadon and Kirk, LEGO loving boys, when they realized that their favorite LEGO creator(Sean Kenney) has many larger-than-life-size pieces displayed at the SA Botanical Gardens...here are just a few of the ones displayed there...

 ...a monstrous spider-eeek...

 ...the people and wheelbarrow are ALL LEGOS...

 ...not legos, but loved this old cabin and the wreath is just tops...

 ...at first Janessa thought these were real...

 ...same with the birds and squirrels, she thought they were real before realizing they were not...

 ...enjoying some rooftop swimming on a warm afternoon...

 ...enjoying some trail riding through the hill country...

...we enjoyed seeing the lights on the way through Johnson City...

 ...our new family game for this year...we are loving this game and its a lot of fun!...

...over the few days that we were all home here together, with Daddy having a few days off, we did lots of Campfire Dutch Oven cooking.  It was fun and things turned out tasty!....

....start of a stew...

 ...Kirk working on a DF/GF Pineapple Upside Down Cake...

 ...it turned out famously...

 ...Jason working on an apple dish...

...Jadon also did some cooking, but somehow I failed to snap a pic of him as campfire chef...

...we had fun doing our traditional Gingerbread House in df/gf style for Janessa...

 ...someone anxiously waiting for the words, "Dig in!"...

...we enjoyed a day with some of Jason's family!...

 ...Sebastian entertaining again-lol!...

...making our traditional Gingerbread man cookies, df/gf...

...the decorating them with raisins and pecans turned into,...

 ...this detailed, artsy decorating!  They sure were cute though!...

...we all cooked a meal together as well for Christmas...we had fun and enjoyed creating delicious dishes...

...on New Years Eve, we have a tradition of a European Chilled Berry Soup in sundae glasses topped with whipped cream. We also added another option this year; a DF White Chocolate Peppermint shake, that was also tasty. Then we enjoy them while we do foot soaks/scrubs and look back through the photo memory books from past years.  We did get pictures, but the computer will not download these certain pictures for anything right now, so I decided to just let words conjure up the picture :)...

 ...we completely failed to get a picture/card sent out this year...

...so, this is wishing everyone many blessings and the best in 2019 from the JK Rokey's...

Praying 2019 for everyone to be filled with peace, love and joy!  

Love to all!