Last Christmas Eve was absolutely perfect! We laughed, and visited, and basked in the wonder of the Christmas spirit with family and friends, all while making spud nuts alongside Grandma. Making spud nuts with Grandma is a tradition I have enjoyed and treasured ever since I was a child. Remember when we made them while taking it easy at their house after Jayden's surgery in January? We enjoyed the day with my brothers Casey and Jared, my Grandpa and Grandma Durfee, and our good friend Kyle Bybee. It just does not get much better than having your all-time favorite people surround you, while you make one of your all-time favorite treats, to celebrate your all-time favorite holiday!
Uncle Casey and Uncle Jared came bearing gifts. Casey got Jayden this little stuffed Chewy and gave Ben and I a gift card to Walmart, and Jared gave Jayden a stuffed shark puppet and gave me a candle holder.
The boys chilaxin’ while waiting for the spud nuts.
Have I ever told you I am a professional glazer? Oh, the boys did okay too.
Casey was pretty excited about them!
Poor Caleb was not allowed out between the spudnuts and Grandma’s allergies. He tried to get as close as he could though, and Jayden was nice met him halfway. Just look at that bum in the air! Kills me!
It was a great afternoon and a wonderful start to our Christmas Eve celebrations! After devouring spudnuts and saying goodbye to our company, Ben, Jayden, and I settled down for a nice Christmas Eve at home complete with opening the traditional Christmas Eve present, watched Christmas movies, and topped it all off with some chilled sparkling apple cider!
We thought last Christmas was going to be the hardest with things slowing down with our business, and things getting tight again, but it ended up being one of our very best! Ben asked me what I wanted, and I told him I wanted to be able to do a little shopping for Jayden. I spent a whole $4 at the D.I. (local thrift store) for a big and cute dump truck, a light up Winnie-the-Pooh toy with sound, those amazing wooden blocks with the different colors and letters, and a cute wooden cart to put them in! Grandma and Ben helped me find all these treasures this very day. I was ecstatic!!! We were also blessed with the biggest memory of last year, that is still a bit overwhelming for me. It was about a week before Christmas one evening when we received a knock on our door. Ben answered it, and was greeted by a man on a secret Santa quest with a bunch of black garbage bags full of gifts for various families. Ours was one of them. I was upstairs and rushed downstairs to see who it was and what was going on. I saw the look on Ben’s face and paused half way down the staircase and made the rest of my way down slowly as I realized what was going on.
When I got to the entry-way, Ben and I slowly opened the mysterious bag, while choking back the overwhelming emotion that comes from such great acts of kindness. Inside the bag was three wrapped gifts for our little Jayden, two for the “Ostler family”, diapers, wet wipes, and a blanket, and as if that was not overwhelming enough, there was also a card with $200 (which was just over the amount we were short for bills that month) in it. Ben and I could barely breathe through the emotion we felt. We were so grateful that our Jayden was going to have a good Christmas. I can’t help but get emotional all over again just writing about this.
We let Jayden open one of his Secret Santa gifts Christmas Eve. Too bad, we did not pick the one with the jammies in it, but he was pretty excited about his new outfit. We also opened one of the family gifts. It was the Disney movie Brave.
Jayden was very thoughtful and made some “snow” to decorate for when Santa came (that or he was practicing for more present opening the next day)out of some napkins he pulled out of the pantry. So sweet! ;)
This was the first year I did not go to bed while Santa came, and instead I helped him wrap and get all of Jayden’s Christmas ready, since we did not do gifts for one another this year. We decided that watching Jayden open his gifts would be our gift to ourselves, and that was the best gift Ben and I have ever had. I would not have traded that experience for the world! I could not wait to see our sweet Jayden’s reaction the next morning. It ended being even better than I imagined, but that is up next!
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