Christmas for the Davids involved departing from Our Corner of the Ozarks for a few days. We picked a place near our son, Matt, who lives at Joliet, IL, since he had to work on Christmas Eve. Lance and Grace and their girls drove in from Maryland. Brad and Faty flew in from Africa.
We had a great Christmas trip. There were a couple of weather “glitches”,
but everyone eventually made it home safely from Chicago. Faty to Atlanta, one day late. Brad to KC by rental car. Lance & family to Grace’s brother’s in
PA. My sister Janet & Dwight home to Branson
after a grueling detour due to flooded interstates. Linda, Grandpa, and I got home to Mountain
View only about an hour later than I had anticipated.
We had all three of our sons and all five of our grands, but
only two of our daughters-in-law at the “Christmas house” near Coal City,
IL. This was our third Christmas house,
so named by Emily four years ago at Annapolis, MD. Brad and Faty were unable to come for
Christmas two years ago to Branson.
No one was sick all week.
The only “fights” were between the younger siblings and they were brief
and minor. I read the booklet “If You’re
Missing Baby Jesus” aloud, but not without crying. Linda had the children read aloud the Max
Lucado book, “The Crippled Lamb”. Linda,
Karis, Olivia, and sometimes Emily sang “I Sing the Mighty Power of God”
several times (acapella). 
Janet and Dwight brought Dad to Coal City on Dec. 28, but
the weather was so bad J&D left to return to their son Kirk’s at O’Fallon, MO, after only
a couple of hours. Dad seemed to really
enjoy being with his grandsons and the great grandkids. And they loved having him there.
The Christmas house was awesome. It is owned by Richard Scheer. He is apparently trying to sell it. It was full of mounted wildlife, including
two rooms of African wildlife. We played
with his games and took his paddle boat for a spin on the 8-acre lake. We saw wild turkeys in the driveway and Brad
saw four deer on his morning run. Goose
hunting was going on in the area around us.
Many gifts were exchanged.
Only the five grandchildren received “major” gifts. But all twelve of us had stockings “hung by
the chimney with care” with much stuff in them.
The children seemed happy and busy with their gifts.
I think the highlight was the Sunday morning trip to Gibson
City where we attended services at Gibson City Bible Church and had lunch at
Monical’s Pizza. We all visited with
many, many old friends. And we surprised
them; no one knew we were coming. It was
great to see our former next door neighbor accompany all the worship music with
guitar (he’s good). And Pastor Paul had
a wonderful sermon from Philippians 2:12-18 emphasizing the role of believers
as the real “Christmas lights”.
Much good food!
Lots of time to play. I made a new friend.
On the right you can see two "stripes". One animal and one referee. Dave Yockey visited us briefly at the Christmas house.
Grandpa Gene with Cami, the youngest great grandchild.
The whole gang, including Dad, Dwight, and Janet.
Jackson and Olivia playing a game.
