Christmas 2011

In retrospect, this was a very strange Christmas for our family.  I spent much of the day worrying about James and anticipating what I knew was going to end up happening-but didn't want to happen!  Nonetheless, we had some great moments on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so we'll focus on those moment for now!  I'll explain James' situation in another post when I have the energy and emotional strength!

Christmas Eve was filled with many of our normal traditions, which was great!  After coming home from the Erickson family party, the kids all got into jammies, made beds on the floor, and drank hot chocolate while Jared read "The Night Before Christmas".  We watched "The GrinchWho Stole Christmas" and of course, the kids laid out a spread of goodies for Santa and the reindeer.  It is always so cute to see what they choose to lay out!  James got to join us in all the festivities, snoozing away in his ducky bouncer!

Jared and I stayed up late wrapping a few extra presents and monitoring James, who was throwing up more frequently.  Nevertheless, we got in bed before Santa came and lo and behold, when we woke up, there were gifts in the stockings and some new things under the tree!  Our tradition is to eat an awesome breakfast on Christmas morning, which we did:  eggs, sausage, pancakes, and organge juice.  We knew we would have to go to sacrament meeting at 11, so we opted to start by having the kids open their stockings only-we would save presents under the tree for after church.  The kids LOVED opening their stockings! I always worry that they will be disappointed in these smaller items, but they loved every single thing they got, especially the squishy balls that feel like slime!

I got the kids dressed up for church, though we neglected to take pictures since Jared was staying home with James.  The kids enjoyed a great Sabath day, full of lessons about Jesus' birth and the true meaning of Christmas.  I was so glad to be able to go to church.  I was able to give many people a James update, which I really wanted to do since those were the same people saying daily prayers for his recovery.  The Christmas messages were wonderful and a musical number on the cello made my heart so grateful for the spirit of Christmas and what that meant for our family this year.  As I listened to the words, I couldn't help but think, this is our family:  "Silent night, holy night....all is calm, all is bright....sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace."

After we got home, we got the kids dressed in play clothes, fed a quick lunch, and proceeded to open the presents under the tree.  I am sad that I did not get more pictures, but James was struggling and I held him close in my arms the whole time.  Once again, the kids were in love with their gifts, despite the craziness of opening them all at the same time!

The rest of the day was spent in a blur of playing with new toys. Jared once again took the kids to visit his family later that evening while I took care of James, though they didn't open any presents-we'll do that for New Year's Eve.  We unfortuneately missed Robert and Stephen's phone calls, but again, we had to take things into perspective and do what we could to savor the day as a family while taking care of James.

Sowith several garbage bags and piles of new gifts in our front room, we end this Christmas with a lot of reflective thoughts:  wondering what this new year will hold, but so very grateful for all we have and for each other.  Merry Christmas!