Christmas

Merry Christmas (kinda late, but if you know me---right on time, baby!)

Christmas this year was great. I'm glad it's over though. We enjoyed a few visits from Santa. The kids were completely shocked to get a visit from him at our house for the 2nd year. Santa was pretty slick. We caught him on our back deck leaving a lot of unexpected goodies. Ian ran to the front door(which surprised me, since Santa was out back) to see if he could find where Santa parked his sleigh. I had to run interference and go look for him. He would've found Santa's ride and that was a Chevy. Much to Ian's disappointment I returned home with not even a glimpse of the reindeer.

Michael and I have enjoyed long conversations with the kids about Jesus Christ and his birth and a little about why we are celebrating with gifts this month. They are always so excited to learn and they soak it all up and then at the first sign of a gift, it's all out the window. We're trying though.

We were at Mom and Dad Strickland for the first part of Christmas day, and at Mom and Dad Ford's for the rest of the day. We enjoyed spending time with all of our family and missed the ones we didn't see. I'm always amazed at others thoughtfulness and generosity toward Michael and I and our kids. We opened up some really great gifts but the best part for me is seeing everyone else open the gift we worked on for them. That part never gets old.

We spent New years eve at our place this year. Mom and Dads were down along with Matt and Allena and Zip. We ate good food and enjoyed each others company. Almost all of us were up to watch the ball drop and to bed shorty thereafter. I'm getting old--it was difficult to stay up late.

Hope everyone is well!