and baby makes three vol.2: Christmas 2017

As we were gathered as a family around the Christmas tree, trying to agree on a Christmas movie to watch one weekend night, I commented how the last few years of Christmas have been a little less than perfect. Last year I had just gotten a wrongful judgement against me and spent the three weeks in between Thanksgiving and Christmas in a federal courtroom. The year before that I had foot surgery on the 23rd of December, so I wasn't feeling good and in a constant state of fog. The year before that was when I was feeling the wrath of the cancer wreaking havoc on my body and felt horrible most of the time and was scared out of my mind about what was happening to me. So, needless to say, this was a wonderful holiday season, in that, it was stress-free (maybe not "free"), calming and a really nice break from the pressures of life. Although Kevin worked a lot, he wasn't out past 8:00pm any night and he got a lot of rest on the weekends and not one of us even got sick! Sheesh! I think it's been a good decade since I wasn't sick on Christmas and New Years. Since the 24th fell on a Sunday, we only had sacrament and we went to see the new Star Wars movie with my parents and it was a-mazing! Somehow, I managed to wrap all the gifts for everyone prior to Christmas Eve, so I wasn't up wrapping all night long. In fact, Christmas Eve, Kevin and I were so proud to be in bed around 10:30pm! We stay up later than that on other nights even when we don't have anything to do! Wahoo!

On Christmas morning, Kevin and I kept the tradition of waking around 8:00am and waiting patiently for our son to rise and meet the day. I tell ya, that kid loves his sleep! I guess he's just confident that no one will be taking his presents and they'll be there for him when he wakes up, so he's never been a real early riser when Christmas arrives. We got him a new storm trooper luggage bag for our trip, jammies, a really cool pirate ship and of course, Legos. After we had celebrated with our family, both Grandma & Grandpa and Nana & Papa, we added it up and Trace received 8,164 Lego pieces in all! That is the combined total between 7 different large sets and a couple of smaller vehicles to go along. Trace was so happy and began to immediately plan his order in which to build the machines. I just kept thinking; "where are we going to put all these?". We have added 6 shelves to the walls of his playroom and have a table full and the top of his bookshelf. Geez kid, we're seriously running out of room! It is so neat to see Trace sit down with a 800+ Lego set, pull out the separate bags of Legos, the instruction booklet and get to work. He rarely needs help anymore and a lot of the sets he builds have age recommendations far above his age. He thinks all this building will help him get a job as an architect, I have yet to break it to him how much school is required first. We're just trying to make it through the second grade.....Merry Christmas everyone!