I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas. We had a wonderful one here at the Martinsen's - a house full of 16 of us! The dinner table was out to the longest it will go and a table added to the end -not sure what we'll do if we add any more people to the family...right now we're good. Emily and Joe are in college and the other 3 are still in grade school so I think we are good for a few more years yet. 
I took a few pictures of the house and had posted them on FB but thought I'd put a few here.... First I want to share my 'redware ornament' tree. All last month I was painting them when I had time that is - I'm not totally happy with them because it was my first time making them so in the next couple months I want to make more and concentrate better on the designs. I made some large plates as well to put on a shelf. Here's the start of them.... 
Kitchen 
Hall 
Den 
Dining Room 
Family Room 
Bedroom 
Bathroom 
Back Porch 
Sorry there were so many pictures but I wanted to do just one Christmas post! The week before Christmas we had our annual Cousins Christmas at our house. We had a great time enjoying many different drinks and feasting on lots of appetizers and then dinner of scalloped potatoes and a nice juicy ham with lots of sides plus a couple different desserts. 
I didn't get good pictures - sorry... 
Last Thursday we went to our two grandchildren's Christmas program at their church school. They all did such a wonderful job. Always fun listening to the different grades preform. This was taken at their house just before the program. 
Thanks so much for hanging in there for this long post!!! Hope you are looking forward to the new year like we are - possibly a vacation someplace warm, at least we are thinking on it anyway - let's see if we do it now. Blessings to all of you Karen