Merry Christmas!

This was a pretty unique Christmas for my family.

My sister, Jeanna, spent most of December in the hospital with complications resulting from a damaged heart valve. On the 14th of December, she had open heart surgery, and we were all so grateful to have her leave the hospital, safe and sound on the 22nd. She was hospitalized here in town, so fortunately, we were able to be at the hospital often.

Needless to say, my mom and I had lots going on in December, and so some Christmas preparations that usually get checked off of our lists, didn't quite get done this year. We all decided that this would just have to be a very relaxed Christmas.

In addition to that, a couple of days before Christmas, I came down with the stomach bug. The first night, I felt horrible, and for several more days, I still felt wiped out, and not quite right, so the timing on that was less than wonderful.

But like I said...this was to be a very relaxed Christmas.

On Christmas morning, we were a little surprised by how late Carson slept. He had been so excited about Santa, that he had gotten up around 3am, and not gone to sleep again until 6!

Around 9am, Carson finally woke up, and my parents and sister arrived to open gifts. Carson had left cookies and milk for Santa the night before, and was pleased to see that Santa had not only enjoyed his snack, but had left a thank you note as well!

Stockings were first. Here, Carson is checking out the treats that he received in his stocking.

Mom got some pretty jewelry.

Christian's big gift was a Wii!

One of Caylie's fun gifts was a Vera Bradley tote bag.

Carson loved helping pass out the gifts, and saying, "Merry Christmas!" He would just squeal and jump up and down with excitement as he passed out gifts!

Corey received a much-needed new bible. His old one was very worn out!

Here is dad opening a new belt.

Jeanna got new pajamas, and didn't waste any time putting them on! Here she is hanging out in her comfy new pj's...

Carson got several new books for Christmas. Here, Mimi is reading one of his books to him after gift time was over, and lunch was in the works.

We didn't get any pictures of our Christmas dinner, but it was delicious. We usually have a very similar meal for Thanksgiving and for Christmas, so when Mom made Thanksgiving dinner this year, she froze extra portions of many things for us to have at Christmas. It helped us so much, because this year, "easy" was they key word!

Caylie helped Carson decorate a birthday cake for Jesus. She had given him a tiny cup of sprinkles, hoping that he would sprinkle them around the cake, but he went the route of dumping the whole cup of sprinkles in one spot instead!

Oh well...it's all about the experience, not the end result when you are 3! Caylie just went with the flow, and they had a fun time decorating Jesus' birthday cake together!

We used 3 candles...no specific reason for that, but Carson placed them and removed them several times before deciding where they should stay...see the extra candle holes?!?

Carson was very proud of the finished product!

There are very few things that Carson loves more than singing "Happy Birthday", so he was all smiles when it was time to sing "Happy Birthday to Jesus".

It was a a very relaxed and easy Chrismas this year, and we all still had a great time.

We are so thankful for all of the blessings in our life, and are excited to see what the new year will bring!

Writing the Waves,
Christi