Christmas

I was quite paranoid about Ramy's travel for Christmas.  He was set to leave Ontario at 1 a.m. on Christmas Eve and to arrive in Nashville at 9:30 a.m.  Because of all the crazy weather in the country, I was worried he could get stranded somewhere.  I spent much of the evening checking his flight status, in between gift wrapping.  Thankfully, all his flights were precisely on time or early and he arrived as scheduled.  We were so glad to have Daddy with us finally! 

  

We breakfasted at the Cracker Barrel, and then were back in Fayetteville by noon.  He napped, while we cooked and baked.  Then he played Santa's helper by putting together a car, sequestered into the living room. 

Christmas Eve night, we went to communion services and then on to our family gathering at Aunt Margaret's.  Everyone was there (plus the girlfriend of my cousin Logan), and we had no family drama.  Just lots of yummy food (minus the creamed corn that I ruined by trying to do too many things at once).  For the first time, we did not all exchange gifts, and it made for a much more pleasant holiday and evening.  We just bought gifts for the kids, and we enjoyed watching them open their things.  We hit the road in order to get our little girl in bed before Santa arrived.

We tracked Santa on NORAD and learned that he had entered U.S. airspace.  Rebecca was FRANTIC to get all the treats out for Santa, Rudolph, Santa Mouse, and the reindeer and to get in bed before he arrived. 

 

My mom and I were up until 2:30 a.m. to get everything ready for Christmas. 

Luckily, Rebecca slept in until 7:30!  I fully anticipated she might wake at 4 a.m.!  We all got a Christmas surprise in the form of gorgeous, white, fluffy, wet snow!  Ramy took Rebecca out in it first thing, before we even checked out what Santa had brought.  We enjoyed opening gifts while watching the beautiful snow fall outside (especially since we still had electricity!  Our last "white" Christmas was actually an icy Christmas, and we had no power for 5 days.  Not so fun.).













Rebecca ran into the living room and was ecstatic at what she saw!  The first thing she noticed was her stash of Zhu Zhu Pets and accessories.  Then she noticed that she got her Bitty Baby Twins.  We had to point out to her that they were sitting on a car for her! 

We tried out the battery-powered car right in the hallway!  Rebecca quickly mastered the forward and back buttons and the gas pedal.  Lord help us!

One of Rebecca's big gifts was a box of dress-up things from Grammy, Mommy, and Daddy.  She loves it!  It's got princess and queen dresses, a doctor costume, a vet costume, a lot of play jewelry, and six pairs of Disney Princess shoes.

We leisurely opened gifts and saved our stockings for later.  Rebecca was so excited about the things she had picked out for each of us.  At the top of her excitement chain was the Spiderman t-shirt we'd gotten Ramy.  She was so excited about it that she had told him what it was three times before Christmas morning!  I am not sure she even realized she'd spilled the beans.  So cute! 

We then had brunch of baked french toast and quiche.  Afterward, we enjoyed our gifts and the snow.  Ramy and I went for a walk in the neighborhood and then took a drive through the surrounding farmland. 



I had an obsession with photographing farm animals, particular cows, for some reason.  Here's my favorite Christmas cow and a flock of cows on the move!

And a horse that wondered why I snuck up on him.

Because the weather was worsening, we cancelled our Christmas evening family dinner and had just the four of us.  We also investigated our stockings.  Rebecca was dressed in one of her princess dresses, along with a chair armcover, which she was using as a head covering.  I'm not sure why.

It was such a wonderful Christmas.  We enjoyed a holiday that was more relaxing than usual, largely thanks to the weather.  We all loved our thoughtfully-chosen gifts, but appreciated even more the people with whom we celebrated.   The evening brought even more snow!