Crazy Christmas

Christmas was so different this year! We started early at Gigi and Papa's on a Saturday. Then on Sunday we went to church for the Christmas Eve candlelight service (only it was the 23rd and it wasn't evening). The service was wonderful this year and I loved that we were able to go with my family. Usually it is just Randy, me, and the kids because of how the schedule works out. We decided it was a Christmas miracle that we made it through the entire service with no... ahem... issues considering we had Jack, Graham, Reid, and Brooklyn with us in "big church!"

Because of the storm predicted to come in on Christmas day, Hayley and Nick decided they needed to go back to Dallas on the 24th. Also, Nancy, Collin, and Cody came into town that day since they figured they would not be able to make it on the 25th. So everyone scrambled and we sort of had Christmas on the 24th. It was fun but a bit weird since Randy had to work and missed most of the day! :( We were thankful though that we were all able to have dinner together and enjoy the family time.

On Christmas Day, the kids woke up and were so excited to see what "Santa" brought. Jack was thrilled about his new globe and leapster and Graham was very excited to have a leapster and his very own Tag! Reid got a rainforest activity mat and seemed satisfied. :) Luckily the roads weren't as bad as expected and we were able to make it to my parents' house with the breakfast casserole. It was fun to have all the cousins do "Santa" again especially since he brought an extreme roller coaster! It was crazy trying to do it in the garage because (due to the "extreme" speed) someone had to catch the kids before they hit the wall. Grandad ended up knocking a finger out of joint. I think he's looking forward to better weather and the kids being able to soar out of the garage and into the grass. :) 

All in all we were so blessed to be able to spend so much time with family and give nice things to each other. My favorite gift was a book that Jack wrote for me. It is so sweet how he enjoys writing stories and illustrating them. Another highlight was being with Brooklyn for her first Christmas. And of course it was Reid's first Christmas as well. That made it our first year as a complete family of five and we look forward to many more with our three sweet boys!