Christmas 2024

Christmas morning! There was some confusion over what time we were all going to meet to open presents versus food that had to be prepared for the day so we had a few little grumpy moments right at the start. It was like having eager little kids again, ha ha. However, we got through it and it was truly a wonderful morning with lots of fun gifts for everyone.

One of the highlights of the day - we got to talk with Xander for about 2 1/2 hours and he even was able to open gifts with us. What a tremedous blessing!!

We headed over to the Clarks about mid moring for food, more presents, and games.

We had to tease Noah about his hanger gift.

Oh, wait, there was a really nice coat to go along with it, ha ha!  Thanks, Uncle Bryan!

A really cool flag for his room.

Thanks, Grandma!

The ole' Christmas card box gift - it's a classic!

Kellan and his knife - "Don't penetrate too deep!"

Cute little Coco!

Ryan introducing Mason to his Christmas gift gems!

After all the unwrapping of gifts was done, it was time for several rounds of Christmas telestrations. We had such a great time and definitely got some more classic drawings!

Mom's extremely disturbing "Silent Night", ha ha!

Savannah's cute depiction of Bethlehem...

that Ashlyn got completely wrong.

These guys passed on the laughs of telestrations to play video games.

Around 3:00 we headed back home to talk to Xander some more...

and then to watch the movie "It's A Wonderful Life" while dinner was cooking. Just as the movie ended I got a call from Heidi that someone had just broken into their house. They were at Robbie and Larry's for Christmas dinner and their alarm had gone off indicating someone had broken in through either the garage or the front door. She told me the police were on their way and that she had also called Tim and Karie to check things out. So of course I grabbed my keys and ran to my car and as I jumped in, so did Noah, Mason, and Savannah. We hurried over, passed Karie who was heading in her car around the corner to see if she saw anyone leaving through the back yard. Tim was walking away from the front door, which was shut, heading to the garage which was also closed. I got out and met Tim at the garage with my kids coming up behind us. I was about to put in the garage code with Tim at the ready, his gun by his side. Just then we noticed the police car pull up so we quickly met him at the end of the drive. I could tell when he first got out that he was assessing the situation, trying to figure out who we were, all standing around in the rain. I punched in the garage code for him and the first thing we noticed was the door into the house was slightly ajar. He searched the house...no one. We figure that somehow, some way, some air came through the garage (the wind had picked up in the evening) and that the door hadn't been shut tight and was blown slightly open, triggering the alarm.

We all had a good laugh about it, calling ourselves the crime fighters. No one messes with this neighborhood!

After all that excitement it was back home for a delicious Prime Rib Christmas dinner. It was absolutely amazing!!

Other than the huge holes left by Dad and Xander's absences, it was such a wonderful Christmas day!