Merry Christmas!

Hard to get them to sit together for a photo!

 Last Christmas I was in the hospital.  It was the first Christmas I had missed in 29 years, but I had a good excuse.  And my family brought Christmas to me.  It was sweet and made my Christmas in the hospital one to remember fondly.  This year was more special not only because we were home again for the family and traditions, but also because we had a little one to share the magic of Christmas with.

 Natalie was very crabby the day before our family's big Christmas Eve celebration, but she brought a smile and her party attitude to the evening's festivities.  I think it was her favorite birthday so far.  She and her cousin Kendall had matching jammies and Natalie stayed awake and happy long past her bedtime.  She had fun opening presents (including those that weren't hers), knocking over stacks of gifts, and playing with everyone's presents.  She slept hard on the way home but woke up at 7 on Christmas morning ready to go again!

 Natalie and Kendall had fun again on Christmas morning as more family came.  Christmas day was too much excitement for Natalie, however, and she took lots of small naps.  Couldn't make it through presents!  It was so much fun and so nice to be home with family.

 We came home the day after Christmas and dropped Natalie off at daycare on the way home so we could unpack the car and get settled back in home without her "help".  It was a good thing we had--the house was 40 degrees.  Most of pipes were fine, but there were icicles hanging off the faucets in the master bathroom and solid ice in the toilet.  Yikes.  Turns out the intake of our furnace got ice in it and since the furnace couldn't get air it shut off.  Not sure when that happened, but I'm glad that although we had frozen pipes, we didn't have broken pipes while we were gone.  In the thawing process we had to replace the shower handle but again, we were very lucky.  The house took quite a few hours to heat up, but at least we had a place for Natalie that was warm and safe while we dealt with the issue.

And now back to reality.  I hope that you all had a great holiday with your family and friends and that the love surpassed the gifts.  We are truly blessed.