"You'll Shoot Your Eye Out!"

By far, Christmas is my favorite holiday of the year. It took all I had not to put the tree up BEFORE Thanksgiving this year but I held off and waited until the week after, well and Justin standing in my way put it off a little bit too.

Christmas 2009 was pretty different for us but still a great Christmas. As we watched the weather all week, it became more and more clear to me that a trip to Iowa was not in our future. After sending Mark Bogner an email with a request for a personalized forecast for our direct route, we knew we could make it but would we get back home was the big question. After much deliberation, we made the (smart) decision to stay home and celebrate Christmas in Kansas this year. Good thing because Iowa ended up getting 20.9" of snow! Holy Cow!

Thursday we spent Christmas Eve day with Justin's mom and dad, opening Christmas gifts. We were so excited to have them open the gift from us because we KNEW we had the best gift for them in all the years we had been buying gifts: 2 tickets to the Jeff Dunham show in March. They were SURPRISED! My favorite gift...well, two favorite gifts: The Christmas Story movie from Justin's mom and my new purse/wallet from Justin. Friday we went up to see Justin's great uncle in the nursing home in Russell. It was so nice to see Ervin. We ate Christmas lunch with him and then made our way back home. Our Christmas was quiet but relaxing! Saturday my brother came over and we played Super Mario Brothers on Wii all night. Justin and Zach stayed up until 3:30 a.m. playing. (Well worth it) And now we are looking forward to Christmas with my mom this weekend.

Looking back, as it's time to take down the tree, put away the decorations and take down the lights, Christmas is really what you make it. I was heartbroken when we couldn't make the trip to Iowa but it truly is not about what day you spend with your family, it's just being with the ones you love no matter if it's Christmas day or 2 weeks from now. I am so blessed to have someone by my side that reminds me of that every day.

Hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas and are looking forward to a Happy and Safe New Year!

Lacey