An Olive Plants Christmas

The Olive Plants family had a very merry Christmas!

Michael and I always host Christmas Eve dinner, with my parents as our guests. We enjoyed a Little House meal with recipes from The Little House Cookbook. We ended the evening singing Christmas hymns, and Orville accompanied us for the first time.

Orville playing on the keyboard he received for his birthday

On Christmas morning, we opened presents at our house. The boys received new toys, clothes, books, and treats. I think they liked their new Webkinz the best.

Yes, Wilbur is holding an opossum! He is a southern boy, after all!

Orville has a bluffadoodle???

Michael seemed to enjoy the packaging the best!

Nohnie, Papaw, Michael, and I all gave and received gifts. The gift that received the best reaction was mine to my mom. I had the picture I took for this post enlarged and framed.

Dad knew beforehand what I was giving her. He said she would cry and enjoyed being right!

Can you tell she loves those little hands and the boy they belong to?

Then we travelled to another state where we celebrated with Michael's parents, brother and his wife, and sister. We had fun playing a lot of games, enjoyed a lot of good food, and made a lot of special memories.

The older cousins playing Phase 10

Orville and Wilbur received WWII gear from their paternal grandparents. We will study this time period soon. Orville had to add a little drama to our gathering, of course.


This is Michael's brother, Marc, with four of his children.

This picture was taken when we celebrated Christmas with Michael's family in 1999. Orville (in blue) and his cousin who is two days older than he is (in pink) were only 2 months old.


Here they are 10 years later. I thought Orville's cousin had been propped on him in the original picture and I posed the re-creation that way. I had it backwards... oops. It's still cute to see how they have grown.

We returned home on January 1 and travelled through the town where Michael grew up. Our trips to and from the family's house were filled with adventure. I have more stories to tell about that… later.