It's been hard getting into the Christmas spirit this year with Ronnie being gone. From putting up the tree to getting gifts shopped for and even planning our Christmas dinner... something (someone) big is missing.
But, boy am I one lucky girl... My mom and dad came to visit and lift our spirits. And we are stationed near family. So while that one big piece of our life was missing, I had a whole bunch of family trying to fill that void.
The weekend before Christmas, we had a family dinner with my grandma, aunts and uncles, and cousins. Murphy tried his best to deter us from getting there (the tire story is whole other post)... but got there we did and we walked into warm embraces and lots of cheer.
My parents had to go home the next day, so we had a eve of Christmas Eve barbecue at my aunt's house. And I won the prize for my ability to cook -- my great-grandma's bean crock!!!! Oh man, this crock is soooooo cool! It has taken it's place among my treasured items.
Christmas Eve was finally upon us. We started our day baking some cookies for Santa. After we were done baking, we picked up some friends and headed to Charlie's Safari for some indoor playtime.
While I was at my aunt's house for the barbecue, she made me promise to come back for Christmas Eve. We always have such a great time, so that was an easy promise to make and keep. But before we left, we got to Skype with Ronnie and opened some presents with him. We decided it would be easier (and have more bandwidth) if we did it Christmas Eve rather than Christmas morning. We had a nice long chat, but finally it was time for him to go to work (yes, he worked on Christmas).
As usual, we had a great time with my family for Christmas Eve! Lots of kids, lots of noise, lots of presents, lots of fun!!!!
Cousins version 1.0 and 2.0
Christmas morning was upon us and it was time to clean out the rest of the gifts under the tree.
Even Cleo the cat got in on the holiday spirit... she gave a big present to Holly!
