Christmas 2009

Christmas Eve:

In typical tradition we went to my moms for dinner; she made yummy prime rib!

For our Christmas gifts this year from mom and Dan, we were each given money so we could carry on the spirit of giving this holiday. So we all gathered around the speaker phone with Nate to share our stories. Ryan donated to hospis, Lisa gave food and gifts to a family, Aaron bought a bunch of toys and donated them to Toys for Tots, Kara found a family in need, Nate and Kristen went to the grocery store and found someone with a cart full of good food and bought their groceries. With Brian and I's money I pooled it all together and bought myself some new North Face boots that I have been drooling over....

Well that's what I told everyone,but really Brian and I pooled our money and provided Christmas for a family from my school, the mom was just diagnosed with cancer and her one wish was to have a nice Christmas dinner with her family, so we bought dinner and all the fixin's, some extra food for the holiday break, and each of the 5 family members some gifts to open on Christmas morning. One of the kids needed a winter coat, so Brian asked around work and found a nice Carhart coat and pants, brand new in his size, and his work donated it to him. We took the pants to Murdocks and they were so helpful they gave us a gift card for them and we were able to buy hats and gloves for everyone in the family. We were both truly amazed at how far we could stretch the money. It was a good experience for all of us. And of course mom cried through each of our stories.

The funniest part of the evening was when mom had the kids draw numbers to open presents. Maddox started jumping around frantic..."I want number one! Which one is number one!" He was so worried about picking "number one" that he couldn't even pick one, so he got what was left, and guess what...it was number one. Though when he opened it he fell apart, "This isn't number one.." but it really was, we were all laughing so hard at his display... I told him to look at it and read it..."I can't read" he exclaimed in the saddest most defeated wail "It's not number one." We all tried to convince him that it was number one but he was having none of it because it looked like a scribble. When my mom was writing the numbers on the paper the pen wouldn't work so she scribbled up and down to make it work and that was number one. Finally I took the paper went and wrote a "real" number one on a different piece of paper and gave it to him. He looked at it and immediately stopped his pouting and was just like "oh, this is number one." It was quite a hysterical display I only wish we had caught it on tape. Now I am not so proud of his fit about having to be first, but it shows just how competitive this boy is, and him not seeing that the scirbble was actually a one shows just how literal he is.

We also decorated cookies, and this year Roxy showed up Brian in the cookie decorating. Usually Brian decorates inappropriately like putting Adam and Eve leave son ginger bread men, or bloody decapitated cookies. This year Roxy had a massacre on hers... you'll see when you get to the pictures.

It was a nice low key evening with everyone.

Christmas Day:

Once again we (Brian and I) were up before the kids. Finally at 6:30 Brian went and turned on the tree lights, then the phone rang-- Brian said it was a wrong number, but I think it was really him calling to try and wake the kids ;)... Madison woke up shortly after and finally at 7:00 we let her go and wake up her brother. Both kids enjoyed all of their presents. Maddox got a new baseball tee, and was disappointed when he couldn't play inside and we didn't want to get our snow clothes on to play outside. Madison loved her clothes and new soccer gear. After we opened our gifts here we got to hand out for a while and just enjoy the morning as a family.

Around 10:00 we went to Brian's parents for the traditional Christmas morning breakfast and gift opening. By this time Maddox was pretty sure where ever we went he was getting presents. It was a difficult thing to explain, and reexplain through out the day, that Christmas is about being with your family and celebrating Jesus' birth, not about getting presents...but he is only 3.

We headed back home and took naps or watched our new movies. Around 4 we headed up to my dad for Christmas dinner. It was a nice quiet evening with good food, dad made prime rib too!

By the end of the day we were all exhausted and ready to fall into our beds. Reflecting on the day it was very relaxing, I didn't feel the anxiety that typically accompanies Christmas, not sure what the difference was but it was nice.

Enjoy the pictures....