Christmas 2007 Recap

My Christmas started last Friday...I was taking Natalie to school a little early so we could deliver the flower arrangement for her teacher and the ornament to her substitute teacher. I was almost there when the Suburban died. The gas gage was low, but wasn't completely empty...so I thought.

I was able to turn the engine over again, but I told Natalie, we had to go to the gas station before we could get to school. The gas station is out of the way and I knew we would be late. Just moments later the car stalled again, so I pulled over again. I got it going, but it didn't get me much further down the road. I finally pulled over as far as I could in the e-lane, but my big'0l Suburban was still sticking out into traffic. I called Dan to see if he could rescue me, but he was home with the boys and I had all the car seats. He called the neighbors to see if they could watch the boys while he went for gas, but no one was home.

Meanwhile, I called the neighbors behind us and he said that rather than watch the boys, he could bring me some gas so Dan didn't have to leave the house. They have a gas tank on their property, so he could just bring me some. While we waited I tried to distract Natalie, who was getting really cold (no engine, no heater either!) We read some of her reading homework and about 15 minutes later my neighbor shows up with a big tank of gas. I tried to give him some money cause I know how expensive gas is these days, but he wouldn't take it saying "that's not what this is about!" I couldn't thank him enough, because he really went above and beyond.

The next night (Saturday) we went to the same neighbor's house for a Christmas party. They had a live nativity in their barn and an Italian super afterwards.

Then Sunday after church, we took the kids to the mall to see Santa. Natalie and Zander were pros, but Hayden still wasn't sure about it.

I didn't get much done in the way of decorating this year, but I did manage to decorate the tree. It is kind of refreshing how little decorating I did, but I do wish I would have put the greenery around the front door and on the fireplace mantle...but I guess that's just less for me to have to put away later, right!

Christmas EveFrom about 4:30-7 pm we visited with family at Dan's grandparent's house.

Then it was off to see all of my family at Andrea and John's new place. After munching on goodies I decided to throw in the DVD slide show I worked up of all the Roush family photos from the past year...So many cute and funny pictures from the past year...We laughed, we cried (well, mostly the girls cried) and reminisced. Andrea couldn't find the remote, so we couldn't navigate through all the selections, so we will have to get together soon and view the rest.

Here are all the cousins minus the one in the "cooker." It is so fun to watch them all play together. I am so thankful to have nieces and nephews who we can spend time with and watch them grow.

We had a great time watching the excitement of all the gifts being unwrapped followed by the wrapping paper ball fight that typically breaks out afterwards.

Christmas Morning

We started off with a nice fire in the wood burning fireplace (that only gets used once or twice a year!)

Then the kids were ready to open their stockings. But not before reading the letter Santa left. Among other things, he said he was hungry because the cookies were gone before he got there. Zander didn't miss a beat and totally blamed the reindeer for eating the cookies! They loved dumping all the goodies out. My stocking had a one of those little boxes in it...you know the kind of little boxes that girls love to receive. I was trying not to get my hopes up...It could have been anything...but to my surprise, inside was a beautiful pair of freshwater pearl earrings with a matching necklace...after 10+ years of hinting, "Santa" is finally catching on!!!

After breakfast, Dan read the "Light of Christmas" book and I read the birth of Jesus story from the Bible. As we read, the kids got to set up the nativity.





Finally, the kids got to open all their gifts and boy were they excited. It was so much fun seeing the excitement when they realized what was behind all that Christmas wrap.

I was making lunch when I heard Zander say, it's snowing. I thought he was mistaking hail for snow as it has been hailing off and on this week, but when I looked out the window it WAS snowing...and not just a little bit, but it was really coming down. I can't remember too many times when we get snow on Christmas and when we do, it very rarely sticks.

Who can eat lunch when it's snowing out?


Later, after dinner, I served rice mush (rice pudding)...a family tradition from my side, along with egg nog with fresh nutmeg. Yummmmy!