Christmas 2006

No white Christmas for us this year. So far, I’ve only had one of those in my entire life, and I’m not complaining. Unlike the Colorado branch of the family, Christmas here in Texas was relatively uneventful.

We celebrated Christmas with Dad and Lynn earlier in the month since they were going to Utah to spend Christmas day with Lynn’s family. Caci, her family, and Jeffrey were all there as well and we enjoyed eating and visiting together for a few hours. The kids, of course, enjoyed seeing their cousins and receiving gifts. We even got to finish the day off with a trip to see a model home built in the same floor plan as the new home that Dad and Lynn are building. They’ll be living just across the highway and railroad tracks in a new part of the neighborhood Leah and I live in. I think it’ll be cool to have them closer.

The Friday before Christmas, we headed out to Mother’s to celebrate Christmas with her and Logan. The kids couldn’t hardly stand to wait until Saturday morning to open their presents, but they made it through the night. It seems like they all got a game of one kind or another from Mom, and we spent the next little while playing each of them in turn until it was time to get ready for Brin’s wedding.

Since we happened to be in town that weekend for Christmas, we got the added bonus of attending Brin’s wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony, and the church was completely packed. There were literally not any seats left in the building. Afterward, we went to the reception at the Country Music Hall of Fame and enjoyed some good food and visiting until fairly late in the evening.

The next morning, we had to leave early to get back to Plano to work and attend Christmas Eve services at our church. The girls’ favorite part is lighting the candles, and so far the building hasn’t gone up in smoke, so I’d say they handle them pretty well. As always, we went out to eat after the last service of the evening and meandered through our neighborhood looking at Christmas lights on our way back to our house.

The kids were up at about 3am, just like every year, and they came to get me out of bed to look at everything Santa left for them. As I promise every year, I got up that once to look, and then I went back to bed. The kids brought their pillows and blankets downstairs and all piled onto the couch together to sit in front of the Christmas awaiting 6am so that they could wake Leah and me up to open presents. Thankfully, for me, they fell asleep again and didn’t get up until almost 7am.

When Abbie came in my room, I looked at my clock and it read 6:57am, and then she pleading asked, “When are you going to get up? I’ve been waiting on you since 6:54am.” I guess three minutes is an eternity to kids looking at a pile of goodies from Santa.

After all the gifts were exchanged and opened, I made our traditional French toast breakfast for Christmas morning, and we started getting ready for Leah’s family. They generally come over to visit on Christmas afternoon and have lunch with us. It was a pleasant visit, and the kids received yet even more toys. I don’t know where we are going to put everything.

And just about the time that Leah’s family was leaving, Aunt Sis arrived home. She’s moved in with us now; living in a corner bedroom and bathroom of our upstairs. We had a nice Christmas dinner with her that evening, and then I went to bed exhausted.