Christmas Eve

We've been so blessed w/ good friends that have taken care of our family while Glen's been away. Christmas Eve we were invited to go w/ the Kartchner family (we knew them at our last base and they just moved here about the time Glen was leaving) to the Botanical Gardens at the Chocolate Factory.  She'd only mentioned lights at the Chocolate Factory so I was not expecting the amazing light display.  

The kids had a blast and enjoyed hanging out w/ other kids for the evening. 

Afterwards, we headed back to their place to eat dinner, each of the kids got a gift from the Kartchner's, and they just played and had fun.  My favorite was Paul's last minute surprise for the mom's.  He got all the kids to go get costumes and they acted out the Christmas story ... shortened version to keep the kids focused.  It was fun and good food.  The bad part was that Alex might've eaten too much cuz 2 a.m., she was up and sick the rest of the night.  By the time I got her back to bed, Calvin was ready to eat.  We did have plans for Christmas Day.  8a.m. was the scheduled time to have Glen call on Skype so he could watch on the webcam the kids opening their presents.  That went well enough.  We kept losing the connection probably due to lots of other people on the internet, etc.  But it was wonderful to have him there.  Then we were supposed to go to the Bishop's house for lunch and then to the Wolf's house (another good friend.  Jenn's been my lifesaver throughout these past 8 1/2 mths.) for dinner.  Christmas Eve Day when I was trying to get the house clean, side dishes made, taking care of kids, I was feeling overwhelmed w/ all the stuff we'd scheduled for Christmas.  But when we got out to see the lights, I was looking forward to getting out more and spending Christmas w/ friends.  Alex getting sick wasn't quite how I'd pictured our busyness to go away, but we enjoyed having a lazy and restful Christmas.

This is just a funny picture of Calvin sitting w/ Alex.  She was supposed to be holding him up, but I guess since he didn't complain about his comfy position ...