Christmas was really wonderful. We thought Tom would have to work Christmas so we made plans for a quite Christmas at home by ourselves and we were all trying to be positive about the situation even though we were all sad about missing Christmas with our family. As it turned out Tom had 4 days off over Christmas and his family decided to celebrate in Indiana so we were able to join them. It really felt like a Christmas miracle. We kept it as a surprise for the boys until the day we left. The week before we told them we had a surprise and the day before we left their clue about the surprise was they needed to pack their suitcase. The boys quickly went from excited to annoyed because we wouldn't tell them and they had lots of guesses including the cabin, Pappy and Marme's, the beach, Auntie Jenny's in Washington D.C., and Grandmommy's. When we finally told them where we were going it took a few minutes for it to sink in that they would get to be with their cousins they miss so much. Needless to say, once they grasped the change of plans they were pretty excited! Honestly, it was a little sad as well because as excited as they were, before we had even left our house Sage was already sad about having to leave Grandmommy's house and Uncle Jim. This blog doesn't chronicle the loneliness of West Virginia and it probably won't, but it was heart breaking to hear Sage's sadness before we had even left our house.
At Grandmommy and Grandpa's house we celebrated Christmas with ALL the traditions we LOVE so much! We went to church, had soup for dinner, had a candle light reading of the Christmas story, hung stockings, opened our Christmas Eve gift, laid out cookies for Santa, and went to bed. Santa was good to everyone this year and the kids woke up Christmas morning to full stockings and the gift they were hoping for. We had a big breakfast and then we all spent the morning opening gifts from each other. The rest of our time was spent playing, going to the Star Wars movie, decorating gingerbread houses, having Fondue for dinner, celebrating Grandpa's Birthday, doing a tiny bit of Christmas clearance shopping, and enjoying each other. The weekend was lovely and they boys were even able to spend a large amount of time exploring the woods in the snow with Grandpa. Maybe it's because we miss our family so much or maybe it's because Christmas gets better every year, but this might have been my favorite Christmas yet.
Now we're home and I'd be lying if if I said no one shed any tears about having to leave. We brought Tucker home with us for a few weeks so he has been a good distraction for the boys. We have yet to open presents at home which has also been a fun thing to look forward to. I'm praying January brings lots of sunshine, slow cozy days filled with productive times at school and sweet family time at night. January is my least favorite month of the year and I'm already anxious for it to be over.
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| Lighting the advent candle |
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| Reading the Christmas story |
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| Getting ready to hang his stocking. |
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| Christmas Even gift is ALWAYS Christmas jammies to help you sleep while you wait for Santa. |
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| Santa Came. |
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| Waiting on the stairs to see what Santa brought. Because of some tricky circumstances not everyone could come to Christmas this year. It makes me sad that this picture is missing 5 cousins. |
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| Going to see what Santa brought. |
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| Stockings. |
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| Christmas treats. |
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| Cade LOVED his Santa gift. His reaction isn't on video or camera but it was adorable. |
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| Sage got just what he wanted. |
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| Aiden got just what he wanted too. |
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| Happy Birthday, Grandpa! |
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| Gingerbread houses. The boys don't have that much patience for making them. |
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| These two. They are the best of friends. |
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| Uncle Jim reads to Sage each night. Sage was pretty excited that he could bring a book to read to Uncle Jim. |
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