So we are nearly a month removed from Christmas but I’m just getting around to finally getting our Christmas post written and posted. Our Christmas was broken up a little this year because I worked day shifts both the 24th and 25th. I made it home in time on the evening on the 24th to ride with everyone up to our new church for Christmas Eve Service. We are helping with a church plant in Fort Collins that officially launches this next weekend but we had a Christmas Eve service at a local hotel. I love Christmas Eve services, unfortunately we didn’t think through this one well enough and let the kids drink hot chocolate when we got there instead of telling them they had to wait till the end so we had 5 very wiggly seat partners during the service. But we did remember the fake battery operated candles for the candle light part…..because we all remember when Leighton caught his hair on fire a few years back during Christmas Eve service…and I just decided I wasn’t even going to think about or worry about that this year with 7 blazing candles in our aisle. Truthfully though I can’t make it through service without cracking up remembering that service.
I worked during the day on Christmas as well and so Clint and the kids hung out and skyped with his parents that morning. The kids opened their gifts and they had a good time talking and such. We had a low key evening when I got home and then we got our Christmas set up after the kids went to bed. I made fleece blankets for each of the kids this year so we put that with their stockings for the morning time.
They all actually slept till nearly 7AM which was amazing. They loved their blankets. This year each of the kids exchanged names and so they got to buy a gift for one of their siblings and wrap those up which they had a lot of fun with. We also got each one a gift and then for all of them we got a zip line. Initially the goal was to have it all set up in time for Christmas but someone (Clint) forgot to get it approved by our HOA and we ran into a bit of a snag there so it will be up in the next couple of weeks once we get the concrete and posts put in place. The kids were super excited anyway and I am looking forward to watching them and playing with them on it.
My parents and brother and his new wife, Heidi, came over around 10 and we had fun opening gifts. The boys all got Legos which I don’t think there is a Lego that they are not excited about. My parents got them a giant bubble maker and a giant cargo net for their play structure. We got the cargo net up this past week and then kids love playing on it. We had a great ham dinner and then played games for the afternoon.
It was a really sweet Christmas time with family. So it may have been a day later but really no one cared and ultimately Christmas isn’t about the day or the gifts but about time together as a family and ultimately about the gift of Christ.
Hiking Mommy 