Our First Christmas

Well I know this is a little late, New Year's is just a few days away but I still wanted to share with you all about our Christmas.  First of all I have to send a big thank you out to my parents who were so wonderful in helping us decide what/how and when we wanted to celebrate and to be flexible with all of it for us.  I know we also had many many people praying for us during this holiday season and we are more thankful than we could ever say for the love and support we have received. 

So our family has two Christmas gatherings, one with extended family and all the aunts uncles and cousins come to that one. It is always the week before Christmas.  We decided originally that we wanted to go to this gathering but perhaps we would arrive late so as to avoid all the children opening their gifts.  So that was the plan, but as you know plans never turn out like you think they will.  Due to unforeseen changes in the arrival of some of the younger children we arrived late for no good reason.  The gifts could not be opened without all the children there so we ended up being a witness to the mayhem.  I have to say, it really was good, I was glad we were there.  The youngest kiddo was 2 years old so really there wasn't any real triggers for us.  Over all a very nice evening with family, which I am grateful for.

Moving on to actual Christmas time, I got to go with my parents on the 23rd with my sister on a Christmas Lights tour of San Francisco! It was lots of fun, cold but we had a great time seeing the city from a new perspective.  Then we went to dinner and got to visit just the 4 of us (my folks and sis and me) which was a rare treat indeed! Then we headed home and snuggled on the couch with the puppies and visited some more before going to bed for the night. My hubby joined us the next morning and we had a nice relaxing day, no plans no rushing around just spending time together with our family. My dad always makes a huge Christmas feast so we decided that this year for Christmas Eve we would go out to dinner at nice restaurant in town so that we wouldn't have to make a big mess in the kitchen.  It was a wonderful evening full of family, good food, and best of all no stress!

Christmas Day was more of the same, and I am so thankful!  We decided to have a quiet relaxing Christmas, no rushing around or tons of people just those closest to us, to help celebrate and remember in our own ways. We had a wonderful and yummy Christmas dinner with all kinds of goodies, thanks to my Dad the fabulous chef! Seriously stuffed by the end of the night, soo good!

 We have been so blessed with family and friends who made us wonderful ornaments for Ethan and Alexis.  They are up on our tree and it really helped me know that my children were thought about, remembered and missed this Christmas and it made all the difference in the world to me.  Over all it was just what we needed and I am truly thankful to my parents and sister for helping us to continue our grief journey through the holidays as gently as possible.  I wanted to share the beautiful ornaments we received so here are some pictures. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who blessed us with one of these.