Where did Christmas go?

It's hard to believe that Christmas has already come and gone! It felt like one day I was running around shopping and wrapping gifts and making treats for my neighbors and friends and wondering if I'd ever get it all done...and then it was all over! At times I was left wondering if all of the months of preparation were worth it...but it only took one look at the little boy's faces as they opened up their Christmas gifts for that thought to vanish! There's nothing that brings more joy than to see Christmas through the eyes of a little one...and I'm grateful to have had that experience yet once again this year!

As has become tradition, we were able to spend Christmas Eve with the Moshers. We all gathered (minus Patrick, Ryan, and Jon) at Pam and Mike's house, where we ate dinner and opened gifts, and were just blessed to spend time together. It is obvious that everyone is getting older though, because there didn't seem to be as much chaos as there has been in year's past. Overall, other than Abby's new Baby Alive not working (even with new batteries) and Grandpa Mosher and Chris having to put their "man" skills to work in order to put together Hayden and Connor's new Twist and Ride bikes, it was a relatively quiet night! My only regret is that we couldn't stick around any longer than we did because we needed to get home to our own Christmas Eve festivities, which basically consisted of each of us opening one gift...that just happened to be pajamas or some semblance of resting attire! Jon even joined us because he was off work by then!

Chris and his little brothers

What do you think we got mom?

Abby with her new Baby Alive

Chris and Grandpa putting together Hayden and Connor's gifts

Chris and Jon waiting for their gifts

Even Kaydee got a gift...she loves Christmas!

Now that we’re all getting older, you’d think that getting up early on Christmas morning would be a thing of the past, but it’s not! Another one of our Christmas traditions has always been to have Christmas breakfast with the family and in the past when the kids were smaller, we always included the entire Mosher family. However, now that the “cousins” aren’t as easily convinced that they need to drive an hour to have breakfast at our house, we now only have Grandma and Grandpa Mosher join us. That meant that we had to be ready for them by 9:00...and I barely was! I was dressed and showered, but my hair never did get done until later in the morning. I just figured that it was more important to enjoy the morning and not worry about minor details like that. I’ve also decided in my older years that the breakfast isn’t what’s important...it’s just another reason for us to be able to spend time together! And we did have an enjoyable morning, although it didn’t last nearly long enough. Shortly after we were done eating, Don was ready to go home! Now I know why Rod is always so ansy when we go anywhere...he got it from his dad!

Our traditional Christmas morning family photo

Hayden opening his Legos


Chris with his new Star Trek game

Connor opening the Bat Cave

What is that Jon? New scriptures!

My gift from Rod, a new Bosch bread mixer...and yes, it's what I wanted!

Grandpa Mosher with Hayden and Kaydee

Grandma Mosher and Jon

Shortly after Grandma and Grandpa Mosher left, we got a call from Grandma Carling telling us that they were on their way to visit. She didn’t tell me that Diane and Vicki were also coming, but I was glad when they showed up too. Although we didn’t do anything really exciting all afternoon, Vicki did enjoy a nap while she was “watching" her basketball game, Diane was able to add a few pieces to the puzzle that Hayden and I had started a few days earlier, Mom was able to play an exciting game of Blokus with Hayden and we were just happy to be able to visit! Then about the same time that our dinner was ready, mom and dad decided that it was time for them to head for home. We were having prime rib for dinner and we really tried to convince them to stay and join us, but they wouldn’t hear of it...so we ate alone! They missed out because the prime rib was wonderful! Rod had cooked it to perfection and it literally melted in our mouths! It was yummy! And even though we didn’t get to have rolls with it (because I forgot to set them out), we enjoyed every bit of it!

We all had an enjoyable day and aside from the fact that Connor was sick for most of it, we were able to relax and just enjoy being together. I’m not sure how Connor got sick because he’s been home for the past week, but somehow he came down with a fever and a sore throat on Christmas eve and he didn’t feel good all day on Christmas day! Luckily, we were able to give him some medicine and within no time, he would feel good enough to play and enjoy his toys for 5 or 6 hours...and then just like clockwork, the aches and pains were back! But we’d just give him another round of medicine and he would be good for several more hours! Thank heavens for ibuprofen!

We enjoyed having Chris and Jon home with us for Christmas this year. It hardly felt like Jon had been gone for the past two years, but we were glad that he was with us this year. Unfortunately, Patrick wasn’t as lucky! We thought for sure that once he got home from Iraq, he wouldn’t miss Christmas for anything…but he proved us wrong! Apparently, due to circumstances beyond his control, he was only able to get 2 days off work and he only found that out a few days earlier, which meant he couldn’t get an airline ticket that quickly (at least not one that would cost him less than $500)…so he wasn’t able to join us! I guess he could have driven down, but after making that 13+ hour trip a few weeks ago myself, I didn’t even try to make him do that. I couldn’t imagine driving down (and back) in that short of time, so our only option was to have Christmas without him. We figured that we’d rather spend more than a few days with him anyway, so he’s supposed to be coming down in January sometime! I hope he had a wonderful Christmas in Washington though! Patrick did find out this week that he’s going to be promoted to Sergeant on January 1st and we’re awfully proud of him for that! Congratulations!

Overall, at this Christmas season, we’re extremely grateful for our wonderful family and friends and we hope that everyone had a nice Christmas like we did! Happy Holidays everyone!