Weird & Wacky Christmas

Our Christmas routine can be very tiring and sometimes leaves me wondering why we do it all, we wake up at home and play for seconds with the new stuff Santa brings and then we are off and running. First to my mom's for lunch and we spend the afternoon, and then go over the river and thru the woods to Heber to be there for dinner and spend the evening with Ty's family, we then arrive home somewhere around midnight. It is tiring, but I believe that is our role in life until our kids are married and then we get to stay home. I found out this year why we do all that running around.....without your family Christmas is pretty weird!!!

My dad was in the hospital for Christmas Eve and Christmas, and the day after, and the day after that. He got a terrible infection in a cut on his right index finger and within hours it killed all the tissue on the tip of his finger, our fear was that it would spread to the whole finger and others and the infection was so bad that it had all the doctors stumped not knowing how to treat it. The hospital is NOT a fun place to spend Christmas. So needless to say we didn't celebrate Christmas with my family opting to wait until Grandpa could be home to give gifts to one another, we are still waiting..... We visited my father on Christmas day and saw a few of my siblings, but defintely not the fun gathering we usually have on Christmas day at my moms with lunch, games, teasing and crazy conversations. My dad is out of the hospital now but has to receive IV antibiotic treatments twice a day through a pic line for about two weeks. We will be celebrating Christmas a week late with my family on New Years Day!!!

With the terrible snow storm we didn't make it to Heber either, and so we didn't celebrate Christmas with Ty's family either!!!! We didn't see any of Ty's family on Christmas and that was strange. We celebrated Christmas with Ty's family on Saturday in Heber.

I will admit it was fun to be home in the morning and not be rushing to go somewhere, but by about noon or so, the boys had played sufficiently with all their toys and games and were ready for some interaction with others. We came home after the hospital and I made spaghetti for our Christmas dinner, not expecting to be home, I didn't have a spread to fix for my family, and I will be honest spaghetti on Christmas doesn't fit the norm!!!!

So that evening around the dinner table I asked the boys, including Ty (mr. stay at home) what they thought of Christmas this year, what would they change if anything. It was a unannamous vote: moderation is good in all things, it was fun to stay home in the morning and play with the things they got from Santa, but it is also good to see your family and spend time with them. So for next year we learned that even though it is crazy to run around all day, it is worth it and helps our little family feel the Christmas spirit. We love our family and are so grateful that we live so close to all of them, that we have the opportunity to see them so much and be a part of each of their lives. This Christmas was defintely a different experience for our family and I am not sure we will complain about running ragged on Christmas, next year it will be welcomed.
Stay tuned Christmas pictures are coming......