Is Christmas over already? Is it really almost 2009? What a year this has been! I’ve started this post a few times, but it’s been rather busy-fun around here! We’re in the midst of hosting family friends and are having a blast – Sea World Sunday, zoo today, and maybe Busch Gardens tomorrow if Little Miss Sunshine is feeling better. She started coughing yesterday and has a low grade temp. I’m praying our friends don’t catch it!!
Our Christmas was absolutely magical. There are days when you just can’t help but smile all day long, and this Christmas was one of them. Leading up to the holiday, I had been a bit blue because we were not going to see any of our parents, siblings, nieces or nephew for the holidays. But with each box that arrived from around the country I started to feel better. We’ll be together next year, and as I saw the excitement grow in my kids, I started to look forward to our first holiday as “just the 4 of us.”
After a beautiful, yet hilarious Christmas Eve service, we headed to some friends home for fellowship over tacos. As a clarification, the service was hilarious because Little Miss Sunshine and our friends 4-year-old boy sat next to each other during the service (childcare was only for under age 4). The two of them sat there scribbling, drawing, trying to sing along and sort-of figure out how to act like the adults. Then he started playing with Littls Miss’s hair and then it looked like he was trying to kiss her, but The Narrator said he was breathing really loud in her ear (which could be where the cough came from!). Boys. It was rather cute. The kids must have really worn themselves out playing after dinner because they gave us a very nice Christmas gift – they slept in until NINE!!!!
After opening our presents at home and having a leisurely breakfast we packed up lunch and all the new games and headed to my Grandma’s house. It was so nice to be greeted at the door and see her walking around with just a cane. Six months after her broken hip, and she’s finally down to just using a cane – no wheelchair, no walker. I popped our lunch in the oven (ham loaf, mashed potato casserole, corn casserole!!), and we played all the new games for an hour. We introduced Grandma to Cootie! Rather than being blue about not having a white Christmas, we decided to have our own Florida white Christmas. After taking a nice dip in the pool, we headed to a white sandy beach where we saw a snowman (made of white sand!) and watched a glorious sunset. The day ended with a round of applause for God. Seriously. Everyone on the beach clapped as the sun set into the Gulf. It was magical. And beautiful. And warm. And peaceful.
I hope you had a Merry and Peace-filled Christmas as well!!
I’m glad to hear you had such a wonderful Christmas. This was our first Christmas with just the four of us, and I must admit, it was really nice. We were able to take our time and really enjoy. It is also the first Christmas where we really felt like parents since everything was up to us. It was great! Have a great new year!
Your Christmas sounds like ours, Bessers, and I have to agree. It was nice and we too really felt like parents for the first time. Happy New Year, miss you much!
How fun that you were blogging while we were at your house. Can’t wait to catch up on all of them!
THANK YOU for such a wonderful time! And we didn’t get sick at all–a true miracle with all the hugging and hand-holding. Praise the Lord!
Oh I am sooooo thankful that none of you got sick! Praise God! T-Rex has it now. It’s been a looong few days!