This Christmas

Jeff and I have been married a long time. How do I figure, you ask? Well, this was our 10th+ Christmas together. (The plus sign gets complicated, as there is some discrepancy on when we officially began dating :-) Anyways, as we reflected on Christmases past we determined that this Christmas was the first when we were at our place with just us, no family at our place~nor were we on on the road on the way to see family. Weird. Nice, but mostly weird. With three family members in Heaven since last Christmas and the rest of our family in Alabama, Kentucky, and Ohio....it was very different to say the least. There were several reasons why this was the case (Jeff having to work being the main reason), but we tried to make the most of it with our little family. In the end, it was very special....

This is what our place looked like the night before.

If you guessed that my hubs is putting together a train table while watching "Christmas Vacation," you are right! Very tiring, but fun as we laughed, got full on Thai take-out, and constructed something that we knew our little man would enjoy! One of my tasks was putting the track together. Jeff laughed at how I used the graph and meticulously marked off each piece as I placed it on the table. Didn't take me that long, so he wasn't laughing in the end :-)

The finished product at 1:30am! Thank you KK and KPop!

Judah wasn't so sure about the video, camera, and giddiness of his parents the next morning~but he was soon excited himself! This is the first he is seeing of the table. Love how Allie is in on the action, too :-)

He RUNS straight to it!

An outfit change and hours later, he is still playing!

This is awesome!

What?! "Horsies" can run on the track too!

More presents?! With no family here, it means that UPS and FedEx have been busy delivering to our place!

Judah thinks the "Sit n Spin" is a "Stand n Spin"....of course. Thank you cousins Marlee and Maggie!

After nap time, it's more baking! Today, it's for Baby Jesus' birthday!

And on the menu today is chocolate brownies! Yum!!!

After all that chocolate, the shirt had to be removed :-)

And we discovered that a certain someone even had chocolate toes...literally :-)

Wait a minute?! Is that Elmo in our house?

No, just the cutest almost-2-year-old I know!

And we can't forget to celebrate the real meaning of the day...the birth of our Savior, complete with birthday cake (okay, stacked brownies with a tea candle on top ;-) and a reading of The Christmas Story.

¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ~from Luke Chapter 2

At the end of the day, everyone, including Allie-dog, was grateful and happy....

 And tired...

one of my favs...my 2 men watching "Home Alone" on Christmas

We hope everyone had a joyful Christmas, filled with love and gratitude! Gotta run....I'm in the middle of packing...we're headed to the slopes tomorrow in Snowshoe, WV! Until next time~