Well that was…interesting

This Christmas was a different one for us. It started out pretty normal and pretty great. We spent the day at home on Christmas Eve. Mak made a present for Santa, Clara Beth wrote him letters on post-it notes and put them on the fireplace screen. I still can’t believe my kids are old enough to write letters to Santa. We played games and waited around on 4:30 to get here so we could head to my parents house for supper before the Christmas Eve service at church.

Just a little something that I don’t want to forget about Christmas this year…CB kept taking Jesus out of the manger and placing Him in Mary’s lap in our manger scene. Her logic? Mary was a brand new Momma. She would be holding her new baby. I have to say I think she’s probably right. I mean, of course the manger was there. It’s in the Bible. But I bet she held hew new son a good bit, too. And it makes me smile that my daughter thought things through that way. =)

My sister-in-law has been saying for a month now how wild my niece is. Seriously, every time we talk she says this. Tess is the kind of toddler who pushes kitchen chairs to where she wants them so she can climb and stand on counters to reach what she wants. She pushes the buttons on the water dispenser in the fridge so she can spray water all over the kitchen. She walks on top of the kitchen table. She has been walking up and down the stairs since before she was one. Seriously. She is by far the most adventurous toddler I have ever met. As my great uncle said on Christmas Day, it’s a character trait that knocked her down hard on Christmas Eve 2010, but one that will take her far in life. Girly’s not scared of anything. You will see why I’m telling you this in a second.

These are the two photos I took at my mom’s house on Christmas Eve. My Love and my Baby Girl…

And Little Miss Daredevil.

So anyway, we were all at my parents’ house for supper before church. We had fixed the kids’ plates and the rest of us were fixing our own. All of a sudden I hear my dad scream and see him lunge for Tess from one direction and Collin lunge for her from the other. But there was no way to get to her in time and Tess hit the bottom part of a bar stool and then the floor. It was bad. Lots of blood immediately and then my dad says “I found teeth!” LOOOOONG (really, really LONG) story short, Reeves and Rebecca ended up at the ER. Sweet Tess had surgery on Christmas Eve. She is FINE now. Praise the Lord. As we all kept saying…it’s just teeth. It could have been so much worse. But still, it’s her teeth. And she’s our baby.

In our family, the cousins are separated into two groups: the big kids and the babies. The bigs are Makgill, Tallon and Clara Beth. Tate is, of course, a baby. Tess and Caroline are teetering on the line. They are still babies but they are really starting to love hanging out with the big ones. And I have a feeling that as soon as this next baby comes along (That’s right!! Sweet Caroline is going to be a big sister this summer!!!) those two girls will officially be part of the bigs. I love that we are all so close. In a way it feels like they are all brothers and sisters, not cousins. They play and fight like brothers and sisters. And they love each other like brothers and sisters, too. You should have seen the tears falling from Mak, Tal and CB’s eyes when Tess got hurt. And for the rest of the night at the mere mention of her name their lips would quiver and tears would well up in their eyes.

So, anyway, Christmas Eve was a whirlwind. Tal got to spend a good bit of it with us and, I’m not gonna lie, that part I loved. It was fun having him with us for such a special night. He helped us put out cookies, milk and reindeer food. We did The Jesse tree and talked about how exciting it was that tomorrow was Jesus’ birthday. We tracked Santa on Norad. I’m glad that the three of them got to spend that time together. And as I was telling my family earlier today, it made me want to have them all together one year so they could all wake up to Santa together. In the mountains. With snow. All Pottery Barn catalog-esque. Anyway, Tallon left just as my kids were getting to bed and from that point on things were fairly normal. Except our hearts were with that sweet two year old across town in the hospital and it just wasn’t the same. Mak said he didn’t even care if Santa came, he just wanted Tess to be okay. CB hoped that Santa and the Tooth Fairy would come see her. All night long while Collin and I were playing Santa we would stop and pray for Tess and Rebecca and Reeves. No one should spend Christmas Eve in the operating room.

*Sidenote: Please excuse my mantel!! It once was super pretty with fresh greenery. See though, the thing about fresh greenery is…it dies. It was going to be replaced on Christmas Eve and I never got around to it. Forgive me!!

For the past 2 years Santa has gotten baklava at our house. Santa is VERY appreciative. Word to the wise…check out the Greek pastry box at The Drive In next year. Santa will love you for it.

Water for Rudolph!

Christmas morning was exciting and fun. We opened presents, played with new toys and had birthday cake for Jesus. We celebrated our Savior’s birth and the gift of grace that we have through His life. We are SO blessed! The favorite moment of the day was getting the call that Tess was on the way home from the hospital.

Happy Birthday, Jesus!!!

Miss CB setting her dollhouse dolls up for a family portrait…LOVE.

There was lots of shootin’ over here on Christmas morning. 😉

Precious Baby spent Christmas Eve with my mom and dad. Love him!!!! So glad we got to spend time with him on Christmas!

Sweet Caroline and Miss CB having a tea party!

And their feet. Why do I love their feet so much? Are you other mommas obsessed with your kids’ feet? Collin doesn’t get it. I just can’t get enough. I mean, really…how CUTE is this?!?!

And, finally…our traditional Christmas Dinner. Christmas Story, anyone? Fa ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra…=)

And then this morning…the Snow!!! How wonderful was that?!? Once again all of the cousins were together enjoying it. ALL of the cousins. I think we all just needed to get our eyes and arms around our sweet girl. She is so great. Her beautiful face is swollen, but that will go away. She’s spunky as ever and still not afraid of anything. It was so good to love on her. And so fun to play in the snow!

ALL of them! Even Tate! See him in Mom’s arms in the front door?

Sweet Caroline. Totally not getting this whole snow thing. Much happier inside with babydolls and a play kitchen. But so pretty in her pink!!!

Miss Tess. Swollen face. Still GORGEOUS!!!! Just over 24 hours post-op. Seriously, toughest kid EVER!!! I can promise you I would not be playing in the snow 24 hours after an operation on my face. Girly amazes me.

My CB. Just plain happy to be in the snow. Got pegged in the face with snowballs and didn’t care one little bit. Had the time of her life today!

Tal. Gun slinger. Snowball throwing MANIAC. He makes his aunt laugh. 😉

Mak. Lovin’ the snow but not all of the layers that his Momma is making him wear. All about the snowball fight until he gets pegged in the face with a fat one. And as Brandon Granger said, looking a bit like Cousin Eddie from Christmas Vacation. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

I hope you all had a VERY Merry Christmas!!! We are SO Excited about this next year at the studio. It will be our 10th Anniversary!!! We are so amazed at the wonderful ways that God has blessed us through this career. We have met incredible people and those relationships that we have made are what we love the most. We have BIG plans for 2011 and can’t wait to share them with you!