THREE CHRISTMASES

The last few years have brought changes to the way we celebrate the holidays, because now we have family in town.  Not just one family, but two!  So, though we spent all of actual Christmas in Wichita with my family, we also managed to celebrate Christmas with John's family and our adoptive family all within a couple of weeks.



A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated with John's parents here in town.  We had dinner, exchanged presents, sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and took them to see the Inflatable House in N. Little Rock that is always a favorite.




(Lily has decided to largely boycott smiling in photos she doesn't deem necessary)


We set off on a road trip to Wichita with trepidation, but we had remarkably smooth and pleasant travel both ways, which was mind-boggling to us.  It was amazing to arrive at a destination and not feel like we were ready to claw our eyes out.




We kept the trip to Wichita fairly short, because it is a LOT of children and stimulus, and sometimes, shorter can be sweeter.  On our first night there, we had sitters for all the kiddos and had a delightful dinner out with adults only.



We had planned our time well before-hand which helped things run smoothly while we were there.  Christmas Eve brought the trampoline park, lunch at CFA (obviously) and the Christmas Eve service at church before dinner.  We also put Lily in charge of getting the kids to act out the nativity with mixed and hilariously chaotic results.

(Twinning is winning)

Christmas day was full of cinnamon rolls, a "Christmas Arena" for stocking and present opening, a neighborhood walk, seeing Mary Poppins with a party of 18 and playing games.  I'm so thankful for family that is genuinely fun to be with, even when it feels a bit wild.

(Ellen made this quilt for Mom.  Violet wants to be in every picture.)

(She had just pantomimed Barbara Bush in a way that we were actually able to guess it, which seemed pretty masterful.)

Our final Christmas gathering came two days after Christmas with the twins' birth siblings and family.  I never get over how creative God was/is as this story continues to be written.  We had a potluck dinner at Gran Gran's, and she had a gift for every last one of us, which is no small feat!  It was another wild time, but it is an unforgettable treasure to be together.

Recovering from Christmas feels like a full-time job that we are not quite up to, and we are trapped in that bizarre time between Christmas and New Year's when nothing makes sense.  But, we are thankful for the gift of Jesus coming down, and all of the precious people we get to celebrate with.