This Christmas was so special. The first Christmas without Mom. It was going to have difficult moments. When Britt asked me if it wouldn't be inconvenient for her to come for Christmas I was so excited! Of course, we wanted her to visit!! We were lucky enough for the previous three years in Maryland to have Britt as part of our Christmas morning so it just felt natural that she be there with us.
Let's rewind just a little bit to the beginning of Christmas season. Putting up the Christmas tree is one of my favorite parts of this season. Setting up a bright, beautiful new decoration in your home is so fun. I was a bit worried about Nelson and the tree, but we didn't have any ornament casualties. Not that he didn't try.
This was the first time I had to deal with a spirit week at a kids school. We tried to dress up appropriately with each day, but I wasn't going to spend money on it. One of the days was a grinch theme. We had nothing grinch related, not even in his color. About 10 minutes before we have to head out the door I decide that I could try and create something. I grab a white shirt we don't care about, felt, a hot glue gun, and some needle and thread. Lo and behold I create a grinch shirt!! I was actually very proud of my efforts. I don't consider myself to be very creative or artistic, so whenever I do something artsy that looks half good I'm very proud of myself.
I was so excited for Riley to get out of school for Christmas Break. Sure, having Riley in school has been very helpful these past few months while I've been sick and sad, but I miss our slower mornings and outings together.
Britt got in on the 20th after the kids went to bed, so we had her surprise Britt in the morning. Britt came out of her room when she woke up, and Riley was shocked! We had SO much fun having Aunt Bo back in the house. It was so fun having Nelson get to know her better. Kids grow up so much in those first few years so he had much more personality than when she last saw him 6 months earlier.
Christmas Eve was an emotional night. We had a family call and while we did read the classic stories we also talking about Christmas memories with mom. After rereading some emails I'd had from Mom I realized how much pressure she felt to make Christmas wonderful for her children, no matter how old we got. Of course, I can relate to that feeling. We always want the best for our kids. I remember the Christmas I came home from my mission Mom had someone put up Christmas lights and we went and got a real Christmas tree. The year I was gone they'd had a fake tree and no lights, she knew how much I loved those two things so she went to the extra work to make the year I came home extra special for me.
Christmas morning was a blast! I was a little worried they wouldn't be excited about their Santa gift. I had sort of taken a gamble with this gift, I had seen them enjoying a giant Squishmellow at Ana's house in November. I wasn't sure it was exciting enough for the big reveal in the morning, but boy was I wrong! They loved those things! They were jumping on those things non-stop for weeks and weeks.
