Christmas

This year Christmas was a blur. I suppose that's all I can expect when I have a new baby in the house. Most of the usual preparations for Christmas just didn't happen this year, and that's okay... I think. I missed having all of our decorations out. We didn't bake any cookies with the girls. Presents weren't all completely wrapped until 12:30 Christmas morning.

But we had a wonderful celebration anyway. My parents, my brother and his wife (Erin) all arrived Christmas Eve to celebrate Christmas with us. We did get a tree decorated... Christmas Eve! My mom and Erin made up for my lack of baking and brought cookies, chocolate cake, and pumpkin cheesecake. Yummy! And though presents were being wrapped late, I enjoyed that time spent with Mom and Erin. They made it fun to stay up that late.

We celebrated Christmas Eve with a service held at the nursing home. Christmas morning we celebrated at church. Afterwards we opened presents and had a simple lunch of ham sandwiches, chips, raw veggies, and lots of sweets. Andy and Erin left that afternoon, and Mom and Dad left Sunday afternoon. It was a nice time spent with family -- celebrating Christ's birth and the fact that Andy has completed chemo!

Now the excitement is all over. We are settling back down to "normal" life again. The only evidence of it still being the Christmas season is the tree in the living room and the cards in the dining room. Speaking of cards, mine were finally mailed this morning. It took so long because I had baby announcements and pictures to include. I am very happy to have that large task finished -- and it's only the 9th day of Christmas. Some of you might actually receive your card before the Christmas season is over!

Here's our annual Christmas morning family photo:


And an attempt at a children's photo (at least they're all looking towards the camera):