Christmas

Christmas Eve day was rather low key as usual.  Shortly before we went to church, Troy and Teresa played some music together.  We tried to get Timothy to join, but no luck.

For the Christmas Eve service, both kids had some big roles.  Timothy was acolyting for the first time.  Teresa read a script for a power point during kids time.  I had worked hard to organize pictures of the Sunday school kids to tell the Christmas story through a power point.  

After church it was home for dinner and then a Christmas movie.  We had some troubles getting the movie, but eventually got it to work and enjoyed elf together.  

Timothy and Teresa were not up too early this year.  They were happy to start opening stocking gifts.  This was the first year neither of them truly believed in Santa.  They opened gifts and thanked Troy and me!

After breakfast and a time of Advent, we finished opening our gifts.  I think everyone was pleased with what the received and excited about what they gave.  By around noon we were on our way to the cities to visit family.

Our first stop was Susie's and Troy's family.  The kids opened presents before dinner.  Timothy's favorite was the headset from Susie for video games.  Teresa liked the mini locker she got from Susie.  We had a good dinner and nice family time.

We spent a couple of days with Troy's family.  It was pretty low key, but we are thankful for the time, as it will be our last Christmas with Troy's mom.  We did do a few outings.  One was for Teresa to get her ears pierced.  Another outing was to go ice skating.

Next we made a stop at my mom's house.  It was our first Christmas without dad.  That made for some emotional moments, but we had some good time together too.

The kids did their annual Christmas play.  Teresa was the Mary and Timothy was the narrator this year.  We had lots of nice gifts to give and receive.

An especially fun part was all the cousin time.  We were able to get together with my brothers and their families four days in a row.  That made for lots of great play time.  And there was just enough snow to have some good times outside!

This was a different Christmas in some ways with the loss of my dad, and the realization later on that it will be the last with Troy's mom.  I think it is one of which memories will stick with us for a long time.