Christmas 2010

Christmas time was so special this year. 

We had our first little family christmas all by ourselves. 

In the years past we have gone to see family. This year we wanted to start our own christmas traditions, just me, Rog and the kids. We felt the needed to break away from our families a little bit and form our own little unit. 

It was fabulous.

We have turned to quite an adorable little family!!  Or so I think :)

The Beginning:

December 19th Roger and I woke up and started cooking really early. My family (mom, dad, jacob, john, shannon and shelbie) drove up for an early Christmas with us! They brought all the desesrts, a side and we provided the drinks, a side and the christmas Ham.  It was the first time Roger and I had ever cooked a ham or hosted a christmas so it was really exciting. It turned out to be super easy and fun!   We LOVE cooking together! He really teaches me a LOT about being patient.

On Christmas Eve we went to the eve service at our new church. Roger, along with severeal parishioners, led the beautiful candle lit lessons in carols.  It was beautful, emotional and a little nuts with two children crawling all over me as I tried my best not to catch the building on fire with the lit candle. At one point I whispered to Anna "stop picking your nose." she looked up at me right when it was silent in the church and screamed out "I NEED TO CLEAN IT OUT. IT IS MY NOSE!"

When we got home after the service all 4 of us enjoyed a fabulous herb chicken dinner that we had put in the crock pot, along with some carrots, potatoes and onions, before the service. We then sat around the tree, lit the advent candles and explained to the children that "baby Jesus would be born tonight and tomorrow we will have a party for him." They were so excited about listening to the stories!

On Christmas Morning we gathered around the tree, lit the advent candles again and got super excited about lighting the Christ candle as Roger placed baby Jesus in the manger and read the story. We kept the Christ candle lit all day!  We exchanged one gift at a time, opening each toy to play with it a while before going on to the next gift.  It extended the gift opening time because we only get them 2 or 3 gifts that they REALLY want!  I want my children to really truly get what christmas is about. A celebration of the Christ child. 

The Christ Candle

The rest of the day we were super lazy!  It was wonderful.  We napped. We watched a movie. We read books. We played games with each other and put a puzzle together! We made an unspoken rule to not leave the house and to cuddle as much as possible.

The day after Christmas was Roger's birthday ( It is EVERY SINGLE YEAR!! (ha ha))   His parents had planned on driving up for church but were snowed in until later.  They came up and took us out to lunch, refusing to let us cook them a meal or prepare a cake.  We then sat around opening gifts and talking.

On Monday Roger took off work since he had been working through Christmas.  I got up, went to the gym for a quick run( LOVE IT!), made a mad dash to Kroger to pick up some stuff before rushing home to shower and jump back in my bed to read read read ALL DAY LONG.  Well, I did knit a little and played air hockey with Paul but I mostly read read read.  It was FABULOUS!  

the scarf I am making Roger

At around 5pm on Monday we started getting ready for friends to come over. 

Roger put the Pork Tender Loin in the oven after smothering it in a delicious assortment of herbs and spices, while I picked up some toys and vacuumed.  I tried to get Anna to get dressed put she insisted on staying in her new monkey pajamas.

Friends started arriving about 6pm.  

We were having a big dinner for Justin and Amanda because they are flying to Africa next week to live for who knows how long.  It was super fun to see all our college friends together in one place ( I think there was 12 of us) but that sad feeling of why we were together kinda lingered in the room.  We are all going to miss Justin and Amanda so much. Thank heaven for facebook and skype!!!

roger, becca, colt

Jarrod, Tyler, Amanda

Melissa, John

Justin, Roger, Becca

Colt, Jarrod, Tyler

It was really neat to see how much we have changed over the past year.  John and Melissa are expecting their first baby girl. Matt and Danielle are expecting their second child, we got to meet their first child, little 15 month old Harrison. And Roger and I have two children.  Pretty soon when we get together there are going to be 5 little kids running around maybe even more.  That is so exciting and so strange. We are starting to take over the world and populate the planet! That is quite scary.

This morning (Tuesday) we bid farewell to Justin and Amanda as we handed them some boxes to use for packing. It didn't really hit me until they pulled away how much I am going to miss those two. Over the years they have become our go to couple!  Our children are in LOVE with them!

Now we are back to the real world.  Friends are gone, Family is gone, Roger is gone and I am back to work watching the kids by myself.  They are currently pretending that they are dragons and Anna is ripping a poinsettia plant apart, as I type this, saying that she is a "mean dragon." Oh I really liked those poinsettias. I guess you can't keep nice things for too long when you have children.

after a cold walk on a snowy day

HAPPY NEW YEAR