Happy New Year and Wow....that’s a lot of kids.

Grandma Sandy had a wonderful, wonderful Christmas!

Well, except for the stomach bug that afflicted The Boss the night before her 5th birthday. The same stomach bug that then swept through Grandma Sandy’s family as well as Lala’s 4 days before Christmas. The same stomach bug that my mom took home with her in the car for a 6 hour drive the day after Christmas.

I tell ya, that stomach bug was a gift that just kept on giving. And giving.

That part was not much fun.

But Christmas turned out to be perfect in every way and New Year’s was just as special!

For the past few years, my parents have left the day after Christmas and we anticipate the arrival of The Chef’s college roommate, Will. Guitar Boy calls December 26th “Will Day.” Will lives in New Mexico. Each year he flies to TX to spend Christmas with his sister’s family and then flies here to spend the following week with us!

Will works in the music industry and he is quite a musician himself, as you can see for yourself in the post below!

Usually around Dec. 29 or 30th we eagerly await the arrival of some other lifelong friends who stop off on their way back to TX to spend New Year’s with us. They have 4 children and our kids all love each other dearly.

Wow....that’s a lot of kids!

Here is Nancy, their mom. She is one of my sweetest friends. One of those friends with whom you can go months without talking and then she walks in the door and you start jabbering like you just saw each other yesterday.

Nancy is a tiny, petite little thing who has birthed 4 children.

You may wonder why I mentioned that as if it were particularly noteworthy.

It is most definitely noteworthy because her 3 oldest children, she birthed at the same time!!!!

TRIPLETS!!

Our husbands started out in ministry together, and the stories that Nancy and I could tell you about us teaming up to manage our many small children while our husbands were gone on their respective youth trips during the summer would either totally impress you or make you question our sanity.

At our old house in Laurel we had a big swimming pool and she and I were reminiscing about how we would bring the kids (at the time, 6 kids ages 5 and under) home from Vacation Bible School, tag-team swimsuits, sunscreen, and sandwiches, have lunch by the pool, then make the kids swim for 6 hours in order to ensure they would drop like flies at bedtime!

Not only have the kids grown a lot since then but so have our families.

After they moved to Texas they had another child and after we moved to TN we had two more.

So you can imagine that during their visit each year there is tons of activity and always someone to play with.

Each year after the Warrens and Will leave we’re all sad and have to battle back the post-holiday blues. We are blessed to have such special friends.

For now, we’re all looking forward to a New Year and eagerly anticipating what this year will bring for Grandma Sandy and her family!

Especially tomorrow. A possible 5 inches of snow is in the forecast!!!

I’ve got my “year round” tree decorated with snowmen and snowflakes to bring us good luck and hopefully a winter with tons of snow!!