The Eve and The Day

Before I start and for Frank and I to enjoy mainly here is a picture of Maelee last year at Christmas and this year at Christmas:

We had our first year of staying home and making it our own this year on Christmas Eve and the Day of Christmas. We had Christmas Eve homemade pizza, made hand cookies for Santa, ate from a popcorn tin while looking for Christmas lights, and watched hi-lites from Muppet Christmas Carol while decorating our cookies ALL after Frank came home from work and before Maelee went to bed. We got busy getting ready for the next day and for the first time in my life I said NO to a midnight Christmas Eve sewing project and decided to give it to its new owners on New Year's Eve instead.

The next morning I woke up early to make cinnamon rolls and talk to my missionary brother in Minnesota, who had a much whiter Christmas than I've ever experienced. Maelee woke up around 8:15am with Frank and I tapping our feet in impatience. She loved the beautiful presents she got. Her reactions were priceless and just what we wanted to see as parents. She even stopped in the middle of opening a present to say "Hi" to her new Kermit doll. We then made our way over to BB's (Maelee's newest name for my mom) and enjoyed time with my brother, sister, brother in law, and Mom. We made a great day of it and even threw in a crab leg and shrimp diner in respect to our newest reality TV love Deadliest Catch. It was an amazing 4 days with Frank at home with us, and we really miss him today.

{Chloe and her Christmas Eve carrot}

Thank you to all of our family and friends who always show us love and kindness, especially this time of year. You help make our days brighter and our lives happier and we feel so blessed to have the life we do. We know all we have is given to us by a loving Heavenly Father, our lives now and His son Jesus Christ. We made lots of great memories and are mourning Christmas being over and done for 2008.