Home for the Holidays

This year Bob and I decided to keep our little family inside the Colorado borders for the Christmas season.  Even though I love traveling to see all of our extended family, the prospect of staying home for the holidays made me giddy.  We decided to spend Christmas as well as the days leading up to it with Memaw and Papa.  I love the mountains.  It is so nostalgic and special.  I LOVE it!  

This year Papa put up the train as well as the little snow village around the tree.  I remember when I was a little girl and just loved setting up the town with all of the figurines.  This year, Lily could not stop talking about all of the horses and carriages in the town.  She kept on wanting to show everyone.  "Now, this is the one carriage, and this is the other one.  This one is my favorite.  Yeah, I like this one the most."  It made me so happy and brought me back to many past Christmases.

Evie was in desperate need of a snowsuit so this year Memaw let her open one of her presents a few days early.  The little pink suit that came out of the box was absolutely perfect and so snuggly.  Evie looked too cute even if she was a little like a puffy marshmallow.  She was perfectly content in the cold air and loved being outside in her snug little suit.  Lily of course has no fear when it comes to cold and we could hardly convince her that she needed to wear a jacket AND boots.  We had such a good time one afternoon playing with horses in the arena and letting the dogs get some energy out showing us their "dog agility."

I spent a glorious 4 days immersed in my book while Bob fully entertained the two girls we call ours.  It was sublime.  

When the girls weren't sleeping or playing with Memaw, Bob got his workout on by flying them overhead.  Lily's latest fun is to see if she can touch the ceiling.  Bob has always been accurate, and as you can see she loves it.  Her delight is simply tangible when she is playing with her Daddy.  Evie has just started to love the flying game too and found herself mid air a few times.  The girls fly better at high altitude and Bob is only too happy to oblige!  Good thing he's nice and strong.

On Christmas Eve we all headed to my old church for the 3 pm Cowboy Service.  It is a really fun service and this year I got to help lead with my Mom and Aunt.  I love singing with those ladies and the entire service was wonderful.  Growing up I always looked forward to Christmas Eve at church because it meant I was that much closer to Christmas Morning.  Lily was tired and crazy so catching her in motion for a picture was challenging, but what a special time to spend with Memaw and Papa.  Two of the most special people.  I'm awfully glad my girls have them.....me too!

Christmas morning came and the baby gave me the best present EVER, she slept in.  Oh it was wonderful and we all woke up with smiles and "Merry Christmas" spirit.  The tree was layered in gifts for the two smallest members and we watched with giggles as Lily officially hit the "I'm overwhelmed" stage and sat quietly playing with her stickers and new "horse grooming barn" (way to go Gramma Jill and Grandpa Steve.  That little barn was the hit!).  Evie was completely content with her new toothbrush (Thanks Memaw) and was amused with little else.  She got an entire new wardrobe and I had a blast opening all of her little packages!

Lily got a new math learning game and Bob had too much fun testing it out.  The little pen lights up green when you are right and red when you are wrong.  He loved it.  Boy, as you get older you find joy in super simple things that you know you are gonna get right and a little dog pen will tell you, "Good Job, you are GREAT!"

As our holiday in the mountains came to a close, we had this amazing privilege of seeing some of the White family again.  This family is like my surrogate family.  They are a family of 11 kiddos and the two oldest girls were my best friends growing up.  Janet, the mom, is like a second mother to me and it warmed my heart to see her and some of the kids again.  So much life has happened since we saw them last and it did my heart good to hug at least a small percent of the White family.  Janet lost her husband Jim a couple of years ago and many of the kids have spread out over the country.  I guess a lot of life happens especially when you don't see someone for nearly 10 years.  I could not have asked for a better ending for our Christmas at home.