Snippets from Christmas

We had a very quiet and relaxing Christmas this year. It was nice to not have any obligations or anywhere to be. I thought I would share with you guys an assortment of pictures from Christmas Day.

One of our traditions in our family is to get jammies on Christmas Eve. This year my hubby and I (to his delight) matched with Christmas cactus's. Also Diesel had pjs as well, but I did not get a picture of him this year. So here he is last year in his festive green elf pjs... I can't get over the butt flap!!

I mentioned in a previous blog about how much I love opening stockings on Christmas morning. I asked family and friends to write us letters for Eleanor. It was surreal the response we got!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!! It meant so much to us to hear how Eleanor has made an impact on other people's life's. Also hearing the day of her birth from my dad's perspective was very sweet to hear. There were many tears shed while reading and some laughs as well. It was very therapeutic for me. Even though it was hard to read different dreams that will not come true, it just really made me realize how much of an impact she made on other people's life's.

Then we moved on to presents under the tree. We do not usually do much for presents. This year my husband did an amazing job!! I received presents for an at home spa day!! YES!!! MUCH NEEDED!!! A bath pillow, a very nice table thing you put over the bath tub to put your book and wine on, and an at home gel nail kit (the legit one). Girls day anyone?!?!

It actually snowed on Christmas this year. We made the trek out to see Eleanor's grave. The black marble looked pretty outlined by the white winter wonderland. I should have thought about bringing a Christmas wreath to put on her grave (my mom usually thinks of those things). Also Diesel went with us. He knows exactly where she is buried and loves to take walks around the cemetery when we go. This time however, it was a little too cold for a walk. So he had to endure standing still (this is hard for him) while we visited with his sissy.

Daddy

Mommy

Watching movies is one of my all time favorite things to do, so we had an extreme movie day with junk food: cheddar popcorn and Milano cookies. By extreme I mean we watched about 4 or 5 movies and ate about 6 or more Milano cookies. Talk about comatose. This was the result...

All in all we had a great Christmas. There were definitely sad times. I missed seeing Eleanor open her presents and feeding Diesel Christmas cookies, but I still had joy in my heart. We know that Eleanor is up in Heaven celebrating Jesus's birth with the birthday boy himself (taken from a friend's letter to Eleanor). One of the letters a family member wrote to us said that, "She is hearing the Christmas story from the original characters." Wow!!! How amazing is that??? Eleanor loved when my husband and I read to her, so I am sure she loves sitting at Jesus's feet and hearing the original Christmas story. I cannot wait until I am able to sit next to her and listen to Jesus speak as well.