Christmas

Our Christmas was very nice this year. That sounds generic doesn't it? Well, it was still nice. On Christmas Eve Jim, Tralee, and I opted to stay home instead of go to a Christmas party. We watched old Christmas movies, and read the Christmas story out of the bible. Tralee actually sat very still as we were reading it.

After Tralee went to bed, Jim and I finished wrapping her presents, and then hit the hay ourselves. Somewhere around 4 am Tralee wandered into our room, and I let her stay there, snuggled in between us, until she woke up and we could open presents. I didn't sleep very well Christmas Eve night, but I never do. I'm always too excited to sleep. It used to be I was too excited due to all the presents I would be opening. Now, I'm too excited to see Tralee open all of her gifts. After she woke up, I ran to get the camera ready, while Jim kept her occupied in our room.

Tralee was still a little too young to grasp the whole present/Santa concept, and we had to remind her how the whole opening presents thing went, but she got it after a while. The first thing she saw was her stocking on the couch. Santa left her a stuffed animal monkey, and she grabbed that first and said, "Ooo Ooo Ahh Ahh." It was pretty cute.


All I wanted from Santa was the movie Penelope, and Santa delivered! I guess Jim must have had a conversation with Santa, because Jim told me it was VERY difficult for Santa to find this movie, and it took him and his elves a lot of time to locate it! I'm really glad he did!


After about three gifts, I think Tralee lost interest in opening presents, and she just wanted to start playing with her things. Towards the end, Jim and I opened the rest of Tralee's gifts for her. They were just clothes, and being a kid, she wasn't too interested in them anyways.


The gift we thought would be the big hit, a Tickle-Me-Elmo-Doll, freaked Tralee out! As soon as we set it up, and Elmo was on the floor laughing, Tralee ran out of the room screaming in fear. I wish I would have got it on video, because it was pretty funny. After that, all we had to say was, "we're going to tickle Elmo now!" and Tralee would run out of the room as fast as her little legs would carry her. After a while, Tralee warmed up to Elmo, but only from a very far away distance, and if she was safely in one of her parent's laps. Now Tralee thinks Tickle-Me-Elmo is okay, but she still enjoys him from a distance. Today she carried it up to me, and as soon as I took it from her, she ran across the room to watch Elmo laugh and shake from a distance.

The biggest hit was a little turning puzzle game. I don't really know how to describe it, but Tralee absolutely loves it, and if that's all she got for Christmas, all would be well.

Jim's favorite gift was a homemade card from Tralee. She had a little help with it, but it was mostly done by her.

After opening all the presents, we got ready, and we drove to Jim's Aunt Michelle's house for brunch. It was really yummy, and we had fun visiting with her family, and playing with all of her kids' new toys. We also visited the 21 puppies her two dogs recently birthed. If you know anyone who wants a puppy, I know a place you can get one!


Later on, we went to Jim's Uncle Dave's house to play games and eat more yummy food. Every year Aunt Becky makes a prime rib dinner and we were lucky enough to be invited to it! It was yummy, and as always, we had fun playing games with the Callisters.



Our thoughts weren't far from Jim's Mom and the rest of our family we couldn't be with on Christmas. We were happy to hear that Tricia is progressing more and more everyday. We're also happy Jeff was with her on Christmas, as well as Jim's brother John and his family. It sounds like Christmas was a good day for Tricia.

We also missed going to my Nana's for her annual Christmas Brunch (seriously the best and most anticipated meal of the year in my family) but we're happy to hear the rest of my family had no problem polishing her platers clean of all the yummy food Nana prepared, even without us there to help.

This Christmas is one I will never forget. We didn't have much in terms of material things, but we were so very blessed all the same. Our prayers were answered in ways I can only describe as miracles, and for that I am truly grateful. I'm so thankful for those that have served us, and help our prayers be answered.

We hope the new year brings everyone much hope, peace, health, and happiness. We're excited to see where this crazy ride called Life takes us this following year. We'll be sure to keep you posted.