Our First Christmas

Christmas is by far my favorite holiday, and this year was even more special than any other because it was my first Christmas with my amazing husband.
My office was closed for Christmas Eve so I spent the day running errands and getting ready to go back to Clark after church. Neil, unfortunately, had to work all day, but was able to get off early to meet me at our 4:30 church service. The service was great, Christmas Eve is always my favorite service because of the Christmas songs, message of Jesus' birth, and the candlelight. Our church was very crowded, which is such a blessing to see that people remember the true reason to celebrate Christmas. After the service, Neil and I wentup to Clark to spend Christmas Eve with my parents and little brother. We had our traditional oyster stew and sandwich supper and then watched a movie together.
Christmas was also at my parents house. My sisters and their families came over so we could all open gifts together. There has been such a change throughout the years, five years ago we each would take turns opening gifts and see what each other received. Now with little ones running around we all watch them tear at the paper, sometimes enjoying the paper and box more than the actual toy they got, and open our gifts in between watching them. Although I do love receiving gifts, I find much more joy in watching other people open gifts that I give them. My favorite was watching my mom open the photobook that I put together of our family throughout the year. She loved it! Neil and I also were given some great gifts (pictures below). My mom's brothers and families and my grandma came over for Christmas lunch. We spent a relaxing day eating way too much and just enjoying each others company!
Sunday we went to my grandparents to have Christmas with my dad's side of the family. We again ate way too much and all enjoyed catching up and watching Kayla, Westen, and Waylan play and run around.
I love my family and I love how close we all are to one another. I love that we can all celebrate Christmas and I know that each person knows the true reason for our celebration. Next year we will be with Neil's family for Christmas and as excited as I am to experience that for the first time, I'm equally nervous about it because it will be my first holiday not spent with my family.

Breadmaker from my parents and electric wine bottle opener from Melissa

Wine glasses Neil got from James, also came with two bottles of wine

Tree Skirt from my grandparents

Christmas ornaments the New Home one is from Neil and the bell is from my parents

Also from Melissa, each day has a quote a couple of my favorites: "Sisters is probably the most competitive relationship within the family, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship." - Margaret Mead and "If you don't understand how a woman could both love her sister dearly and want to wring her neck at the same time, then you were probably an only child." - Linda Sunshine

My parents gift to Neil, he can send in one of his pictures and will receive a 16x20 canvas of it

TV for our bedroom from Neil



The shoes I bought with the Christmas money from my mother-in-law



Proud Sister

My little brother had his second basketball game of the season last night, first that I was able to watch. Jeff has always been a good athlete, ridiculously fast and focused. Last year I went to as many games as possible. Jeff played some JV last year, but not a ton, and was on the Varsity Team, but rarely played. He wasn’t bad, just not always confident. Shortly after my wedding last May, Jeff cut his hair…short. Who knew a haircut could give someone such confidence and make so much difference in an appearance, he looks about 5 years older.

I was very excited to go to the game last night. After his first game of the season last Friday, my mom of course gave me a play by play and I was so mad I wasn’t there! She talked about how awesome he was. He jumped for JV and beat the guy by a mile (Jeff may not be a giant, but he can JUMP!). He played 3 quarters of JV and did great. She said Varsity started off slow and the team wasn’t looking too great. Jeff was the second off the bench and made all the difference! She said Jeff was all over the floor defensively, saw open players and made passes that many couldn’t, and gave the team the spark they needed. She said she had a number of people come up after the game commenting on the improvement, and at one time she looked at the coach and he just looked stunned. One lady even came up to her after the game and said that during warm-ups she had spotted Jeff out there and had to look at a program to see who he was, that’s how different he looks!

Last night, Neil and I couldn’t make it to the JV game because we had to work, but we made it just in time for the Varsity game. My mom told us Jeff played well during JV and only played two quarters, which meant he could play four quarters of Varsity, and he DID! Again, he was second off the bench and the team was up by 20 in the middle of the first quarter. I was amazed with Jeff’s performance; nothing my mother said prepared me for how well he did. I’ve always known he was quick so his speed up and down and all over the court didn’t surprise me, but the way he could see the court did. He was passing to people for an assist without even looking, between defensive players, whatever was necessary. He sank a three point shot that was BEAUTIFUL! Ultimately, he did foul out of the game with just two minutes left in the fourth quarter, but they were unavoidable fouls, not sloppy. Clark has a very vocal coach who isn’t afraid to yell when a player messes up and not once did I hear his yelling directed at Jeff! I just sat through the whole game so very proud of my brother; I just wish I could make it to more of his games!

Weekend with Westen

Thursday night my sister, Melissa, asked if Neil and I could watch her youngest son Westen for the weekend. She was going to be coming to Sioux Falls for a No Kids Shopping Trip with her mother-in-law and sister-in-laws. Of course, I was more than willing to take Westen for the weekend. I haven’t spent much time with him and wouldn’t turn down the opportunity. When his older brother, Waylan, was born in 2006 I was going to school and working part-time, which meant a very flexible schedule. When Melissa needed emergency daycare I would go to Bradley to watch him, or if I had a free day (or wanted a free day) I would go visit. Since Westen was born just last January my schedule hasn’t been nearly as flexible as it was which meant this weekend was only the second time I’ve ever babysit him.

Melissa made it to Sioux Falls around 7:00pm, dropped Westen off, and headed out for her girls weekend. Westen hadn’t eaten yet so we warmed up some leftover spaghetti for him. We don’t have a highchair or booster seat so Westen sat on my lap while he ate. This was fine until our dog Brownie decided Westen’s bib, covered in food, smelled good and tried to pull it off him. Luckily I was holding Westen and was able to push Brownie off before he actually got a grip on anything, but it definitely scared Westen and Brownie had to spend the rest of the weekend kenneled since he couldn’t behave. All too quickly bedtime rolled around and Westen fell asleep cuddled up in my arms.

Saturday morning Westen woke us up at 6:30am, which is my normal time to get up and ready for work so it wasn’t bad. We looked out the window to find blizzard conditions and knew Westen and I wouldn’t be leaving the house for the day. The morning went quickly with him taking a 2 ½ hour nap at 10:00. The afternoon however, wasn’t quite so smooth. Westen wasn’t so sure about Neil which meant I wasn’t allowed to leave his sight and most of the time I couldn’t even put him down. We tried to get him to go down for an afternoon nap, but he wasn’t going to have it! We spent the day climbing up and down the stairs, walking around the kitchen, reading books, and watching cartoons. Westen became more and more comfortable with Neil as the day went on, and Neil even tried to change Westen’s diaper, which was probably the highlight of my day! I was still laughing hours later about Neil frantically trying to change a messy diaper until finally I had to go take over. Neil’s highlight would probably be when Westen somehow managed to change the channel to ESPN and then handed the remote over to him!

Sunday morning was a very early one for us. Westen woke up at 4:00am and was determined not to go back to sleep! I was finally able to get him asleep at 6:00am; unfortunately I wasn’t able to fall back asleep and laid in bed awake until he woke up again at 7:30am. Westen spent most of Sunday morning playing with Neil which I was very thankful for because I was so exhausted! Around 9:30 Westen started getting tired again, but was fighting sleep. He finally fell asleep laying on my lap at 10:45, but at 11:00 Melissa showed up to take him home. He was only half awake, but still very happy to see his mom! I was sad to see him go because I miss all the hugs and snuggles, but was more than happy to curl up on the couch with Neil and take a nap!