TO CHRISTMAS, AND BEYOND!

WE SURVIVED! Christmas is over and no offense, but it is good to get back to normal. It is good to get some sleep again. It is good to...have the kids sleep again. Ahhh sleep, how I missed you.

Christmas was very good to us this year. Our families spoiled us rotten. We did have one reoccuring theme of the season though. It was "warmth" Each of us got at least 2 new coats from different family members. Erin gave me a new leather coat (black friday sale) and Erin's mom gave me a new coat. Erin's mom also gave Erin a new coat (hooded pee coat, yes there were jokes) and the kids got 2 new coats from her as well. My mom gave each of the kids new snow suits. So we are very warm!

Christmas Eve was a lot of fun. We usually spend Christmas Eve with Erin's family in Midway. We sing songs, have a talent show, and open presents. It is always a good time. Emma sang Jingle Bells by her self. She was so cute. It was really good to see the family again as well.

So, our kids are really young still so we were expecting to sleep early and late that night. The kids actually cooperated. The only problem that we had was Erin. She took some alergy medication right before bed and couldn't sleep all night. That is what she said, I really think that she was excited for Christmas. So we were up most of the night trying to get to sleep. We were actually up making breakfast before the kids woke up.

The morning was great! Emma really got into the spirit of opening presents. She was so excited for all the things that she opened. She couldn't wait to see what the next one was. She was even excited for the clothes. It was really cute. Matthew on the other hand couldn't have cared less. He got a fisher price race track thing and he played with it all morning. He is still playing with it. The sad part is that it was the first thing that he opened and he lost interest in everything else. Emma was more then happy to help out her brother.

Christmas day found us at my parents house for ham with the rest of my family. There were kids everywhere. It was sad though because my sister and her family are in Texas. They were missed. It was a fun time though. We later went to Erin's family's waffle party that night. They traditionally cook waffles for dinner on Christmas. They get the good bacon and the pure maple syrup. It was really good. So with all this excitement you'd think we would sleep soundly. We would have if Emma wasn't so excited that she stayed up until 10:00. Grrr... It was another late night

We did the traditional after Christmas thing and visited JC Penny and Wal-mart for their sales. We got a lot of gift cards this year so we were able to get new pots and pans. Emma was still excited that night and still didn't go to sleep until 10:00. so we stayed up again. This was a problem for Sunday when we were all sleep deprived and sick. We missed church and took turns sleeping and watching the kids. We feel great now, but it took Sunday and Monday to get this way.

So all in all, a good Christmas! Everything went according to plan, no one was injured to badly, and I don't think that we offended anyone in our families. Wow, it was great!

Pics as promised

Christmas?

School is over!!! Well, for the moment. Final grades are not yet out, but it looks like I passed every class this semester. I am actually surprised. It was looking pretty scary there for a moment or two. Erin's school is also out. She is scared that she won't get straight A's again. I'm torn between being jealous and congratulating her. Well, I guess I'll just fold her laundry the wrong way. That'll show her.

I have been spending my break cleaning, playing, shopping, hanging out with friends, and fixing computers. My in-laws were nice enough to save their computer issues until after the semester ended. So when school got out I was given a list of 5 computers and a network that needed to be addressed. Lucky me. I was able to take a day to complete them. My list is now open again. Hmm... maybe I shouldn't have said that.

Emma has really been getting into the Christmas spirit. Every day she wakes up and tells us that it is Christmas and we should open presents. We decided that we wouldn't be able to buy a large tree this year so we tried to make do with our 2 foot artificial. It was nice, but it's small. Erin's Mom took Emma to see Santa at the mall and told us later that the only thing that she asked Santa for was a tree. We felt so bad that we scraped up some money to buy a larger artificial tree that was on the "We got to get this crap out of here" sale. Yes, only half the tree is decorated due to Matthew. The ornaments keep getting higher and higher as we replace the ones that he has ripped off.

We were planning on having a poor Christmas this year. We're both students and I only make part time wages. The miracle of Christmas hit us hard though. The Lord decided that we needed help. We were given enough money to buy the kids presents and some for us as well. We still don't know who did it, but it sure helped.

The other blessing that happened is that our Car broke down. The clutch died in my little Mazda. We review the list of repairs and found that it was just too large. So, we did some praying and searched online for another car. Little did we know that in Kaysville there was an older couple praying to find someone to take their little Civic that would need it. We found each other and bought a 97 civic for a great deal. So great that we were able to get the loan for a little more to help with some extra things we have been needing. We hate going into debt again for a car since we just payed off the others, but we plan to pay off this one with our tax return. It was a great car for a great price. So we were blessed in many ways already this Christmas.

We will be spending our first Christmas morning as a family. We traditionally go to Midway to spend the morning opening present with Erin's parents, but we decided to make our own traditions this year. So we plan to make an excellent breakfast, sing some Christmas Carols (maybe), and do anything we can think of to delay opening the presents. We think that the kids would like that the most. Maybe not though. We'll see what happens.

We have some excellent pictures of the kids I will be putting up later today. I just need to get time to do it.