Happy Christmas in the Merry New Year!

When the kids came back home last Sunday (12/28) they were dieing to open presents but because of complicated schedules we needed to wait until New Years Day to actually celebrate Christmas so that Grandma and Uncle Billy could be with us. Because of their great attitudes we decided to let them open their gifts from Santa on Monday. They were very excited to see that Santa brought them Webkinz...and very content to wait until 1/1 to open the rest. :)

New Years Eve: This was a crazy day for us. Scott had treatment in the morning and evening and was almost sent to the ER because of his BP. Thankfully, he recovered enough to come home and enjoy the night with us. Uncle Billy brought Grandma to our house so she could spend the night and we had lots of fun celebrating our end to 2008! We had a delicious dinner of beef kabobs, stuffed mushrooms and salad followed by TONS of snacks! Scott rested for most of the evening in between our activities.

We started our Party by writing letters for our Time Capsule. We wrote down some of our favorite things...food, colors, smells, books, songs, movies and so on. Then we wrote down 10 wishes (goals) that we would like to see come true in our life with at least one of them happening in 2009. Scott videotaped us reading our lists so we can watch it next New Years Eve and see how much we have changed. These letters became pretty personal so I will give you a non-mushy random sampling:

1. I want to be like my dad. (N)
   
2. I want to be an artist. (N)
3. I want to learn to make bacon in 2009. (E)
   
4. I want to have a healthy family. (E)
   
5. I want to skydive. (A)
6. I want to learn how to play the drums and piano. (A)
7. I want to be a policeman. (L)
8. I want a puppy dog. (L)
9. I want to create art everyday. (D)
10. I want to always be close to those I love. (D)
11. I want to go back to school. (S)
12. I want to get healthy. (S)
13. I want to Grow in the Lord. (Gma)
14. I want to learn to play music. (Gma)

We ended 2008 and welcomed 2009 by playing a special edition of Dawson Charades and competing in a silly Paper Sack Contest. The kids had to stand on one leg, bend over and pick up a paper sack with their mouth. Each turn we cut an inch off the bag...it was great fun watching them balance...and fall...and balance...and fall....we definitely laughed our way into 2009. Lucas was our winner, Autumn took second, Eli took third and Noah took fourth.

Our Christmas celebration started at 3pm and ended around 5:30 pm on Jan. 1st. We took our time and opened gifts one at a time so we could all enjoy each other's gifts. Plus, this makes the fun last that much longer! :) We had a great time with Grandma & Uncle Billy and as usual, laughed all afternoon. Lucas played Santa for about an hour and then Eli took over handing out gifts. We had a wonderful Angel who helped us with Christmas this year and she really blessed our family. We had a great, relaxed day celebrating our Happy Christmas in the Merry New Year!

P.S. Our great friend "Tweety" surprised us at 5:30 and kidnapped me and the kids. She took us to get ice cream and gave us a KC Christmas Light tour...we even ended up at Crown Center in our PJ's!! Lucas was super cute in his PJ's, robe and slippers while running under the Christmas trees. It was a fantastic day with our loved ones.