God Bless Us, Every One!

*Disclaimer: In the following post, I am even more long-winded and picture happy than usual, so you may want to pace yourself or even make a snack before you start this. Sorry, but I am full of Christmas Cheer!! :>)

So this is Christmas. I was sort of half dreading this year since it was without David. No matter how thrilled I am about his coming home very soon, it is still hard to face a holiday without him. A family holiday where everyone enjoys being together is missing something without my David.

But here it is Christmas Day Night, and we had a really nice Christmas - complete with a few phone calls and a short web cam session with David. Don't get me wrong, I missed him every single second. He is supposed to be HERE with US. But despite his absence, we had a nice day with sweet parents and grandparents, adorable children, and near perfect pets.

The kids both have yucky colds. We have even had some fever off and on from Spencer. Poor guy, last Christmas he had a bad stomach virus and missed everything. And now this snot and coughing is impeding his holiday fun. Plus, having a new dog in the house, and with Daddy here with his Abby, I was not sure how it all would go. I needn't have worried. Things have just been so NICE.

Daddy and Abby's arrival was a big deal around here. We were all very excited! It is a 9 hour drive for him from Scott AFB, so all day long every 3 minutes Jessa would ask, "Is Bay here yet?" He did call us when he was close, so we did not have to wait by the window all day long - whew!

Watching for BAY

The first official gift of Christmas -

HUGE Gator Pillows from Bay.

Once Bay arrived, he did present them these pretty big alligator pillows. They were a big hit. They both slept with them that night. I asked Spencer what his was named, and he replied, "Spencer." Very creative, right? So I asked Jessa what hers was named. She thought for a minute and said, "Hannah Montana." And I said, "Won't that get confusing since you already have a fish named Hannah Montana?" (Mom, the smart aleck said, yeah, when she calls them they will both come running - ha!) She decided I made a good point. So she smiled and said, "I know! My fish is Hannah Montana and my gator can be Miley Cyrus!" She cracks me up!

We spent Christmas Eve at Mimi and Poppy's house, as we have done every year since I was born. We had a great time. The kids were sweet and precious. They both were so excited about Christmas and seeing everyone. They were polite and appreciative and made a Momma so proud!

Spencer loves opening presents and his Poppy!

Jessa had fun playing and was even pretty patient waiting her turn.

Bay complained of a stiff neck with some soreness-

I cannot imagine why, can you?

I gave everyone matching shirts that read,

"Home of the Free Courtesy of the Brave"

and we took a group picture to send to David!

My handsome HEALTHY brother -

Another Christmas Cancer-Free!!

My tired puppies - 3 AM after helping Santa

(Max and Dunken -even harder to tell apart after Max's visit to the groomer!)

I know I have mentioned the kids being so funny about "ordering" things from Santa. So Santa was sort of stumped about what they really wanted. I can tell you that Santa seemed to have enjoyed his shopping for the Key children! The most fun they seemed to have was with a foot locker aka "treasure chest" filled with dress-up clothes for BOTH of them. This was an attempt on Santa's part to encourage Spencer to branch out a bit from his tendency to always wear dresses and plastic high heels when they dress-up together. I thought Santa had chosen some manly alternatives to his favorite Sleeping Beauty Gown, for example, a cowboy, a policeman, a fireman, a construction worker, etc. My other smart aleck parent Daddy's comment was "Oh, you mean like the Village People??" Whatever he says, Santa tried!

Luckily, we got home late, so the kiddos were up late. So my precious sleepy babes did not wake up until after 10! We all loved that. . .

BUT WHEN THEY DID,

HERE IS WHAT THEY FOUND:

Quite a haul, huh??


Jessa loves her Barbie House and her dress-up clothes!

Did I mention she really liked her dress up clothes??

Spencer was so polite and asked permission to open each of his presents.

(We have been telling him "no" and "wait a few more days" for so long, he wanted to be sure it was ok!)

Spencer enjoyed his dress up clothes, too ,Argh!! He also enjoyed his hot wheels!

And throughout it all (even being covered in tissue paper)

all the dogs were quiet and nice and just about perfect!

Stewart is the "downstairs cat" mainly because

he escapes through the doggie door, but today he was a nice boy, too!

We missed David ever so much, but we managed to have a wonderful holiday anyway. Of course it does help that we are anticipating a New Year's Day Reunion with him! Yep, that's right, only one more week! Holy Cow! Merry Christmas!

And God Bless Us All:

From the sickly, snotty babies who were always coughing to a new dog in the family to all the pets who were patient during crazy holiday times to Momma and Daddy who allow us to invade their home when it suits us to all of our family who got to be together for our old traditions to our David and ALL the soldiers far away from home this holiday and all the families who are missing them,

God Bless Us - Every One!!