Christmas: without family, but with family.

This year was a very different Christmas for us. It was our first Christmas away from our family. First christmas in Colorado. I was hoping that by living in Colorado it would be a sure thing I would get a white Christmas.... but, nope, not this year. They say it is a 50/50 chance to get snow on Christmas and seeing that it has been a very dry winter for us it was no surprise to any one but me that there was no snow this year on Christmas.

Christmas Eve was wonderful and not so much out of my family tradition. We went to the Christmas eve Candle light service and then came home, read Haddie the christmas story (the real one), put the babies to bed, and then wrapped presents, stuffed stockings, and put the presents under the tree.

The rest of the night was not so fun for me, I awoke in the middle of the night sick and moved into the living room to finish the night in hopes not to wake Paul or get him sick too. Plane didn't work... he did't awake, but he did get sick.

Christmas Morning was fun in spite of Paul and I feeling sicky, but as a parent you have to push past the sickness most of the time.

Haddie was a pro at unwrapping gifts. Which made it so much fun. At her birthday, she would still needed help and then was too involved with the one gift, she didn't want to open any more. But not this time, she loved the unwrapping so much she cared less about the gift, that is unless it was one of her favorite characters, then it would distract her just enough to let Eden or one of us start opening our gifts. However, Haddie then would hear the sound of ripping paper and would jump in to help. She helped open almost all, that is all, but Paul's. He wouldn't let her help him.

Before we opened all the presents, we skyped Paul's mom and Dad so that they could see the girls open the gifts from them. Which is so neat. I love skype... it really can feel like they are right in our living room. They loved watching the girls and Haddie, as always, loved being the center of attention. (she is so my daughter)

We then skyped my parents and got to talk with them on Christmas.

After all the presents were out and wrapping paper was every where, as well as our stocking stuffers, we finally could relax in the mess and be sick... oh wait no, now we have two little girls fussing to eat and to open the boxes of toys (okay really only one little girl, Eden was content enough to go down for a nap).

We were suppose to go have lunch at a friends from church, but we were in NO mode to eat. So we called to postpone until dinner. Once it came time for dinner I was feeling better, but Paul was feeling worse. We would have called to cancel, but we had the ham, green bean casserole, and the deviled eggs. So we really had no choice. Paul was a trooper and did great, just didn't eat much. It was fun evening despite us not feeling well. It is always good to be with family, even if the family is not related through blood. Church family can be just as good. It is something I LOVE about the church. It makes me so thankful for our church here in Canon and very sad for those who are not apart of a church family. How do people who live away from family survive with out the support of a church family?