Janna's Journey

Ever since I can remember the weekend after Thanksgiving my mom and sisters/ sister in-laws have gotten together to jump-start the holidays with a Christmas gift exchange and food! It started out as gingerbread house making and gift exchange  but over the years we slowly got tired of it or we got less creative or more lazy or all three …or OK let’s be honest mom was the one who made all the gingerbread and frosting for all of us girls and when her and my dad kept going away on missions we just couldn’t keep that tradition alive, so ya, lazy was probably the main reason😬. So it slowly evolved into a sisters gift exchange and eating!  It’s always so fun to get together with these ladies and get caught up on each other’s lives and of course opening Christmas presents in November is also really fun! It’s not supposed to be anything too expensive and it’s not supposed to stress anyone out over it, just a little something. My mom always goes above and beyond and quilts, counter stitches or home makes us something, these are things I will cherish forever! We’ve been doing this so long that every year when I crack open my Christmas decorations most of my decorations are from my sisters, it’s always so fun to see all the things from everyone over the years!

Last night we got together for this years exchange, we met at Pizza Factory, another great day down in the history books and a whole bunch of awesome goodies, I always love everything even if it’s not something I would choose for myself, just knowing it came from my sisters means everything to me! Dad joined us this year, he even picked up the tab, I think we all can agree he’s welcome to come anytime 😛 I am so glad that we have kept this tradition alive, I hope we can continue to do so for many years to come! I love my family!

*This is the only pic I could find of our gingerbread making, this was 2008, I can tell we bought the kits that year, so maybe it was our last year?