Christmas Time

It has been a very busy holiday season. Brandon was working on several gifts. He restored a wagon that his dad received as a gift on Christmas when he was a boy. He also built a spoon case for his sister Chelsea who collects spoons. He helped fix up a dirt bike for his buddy Greg. We were also trying to finish the shower in the master bedroom. He worked really hard to get ahead at work so that he could have some days around Christmas off. Then he would come home and work on all these projects. It was totally nuts!

On December 19th Chelsea, Billy, and Ryan arrived in town. Mindy, Pat, and the girls came up to hang out. We all want out to dinner before Dennis, Donna, and Chelsea went to the Nutcracker.

Natalie and Justin didn't arrive until the 23rd. Natalie was planning on giving her daughter Cali her old doll house for Christmas. Unfortunately when she pulled it out of the shed it was totally thrashed. The rats had gotten to it. Brandon and Justin saved the day by building a new one.

Christmas Eve was a lot of fun. We played volleyball at the church for a few hours. Then Dennis wanted all the little kids to pick out some See's Candy at the mall. We had Chinese for dinner. We had a white elephant gift exchange. Then we watched a slide show of family pictures put to music in honor of Kemy put together by Dennis. The night ended with everyone putting out Santa gifts.


Christmas morning we unwrapped gifts. Brandon and I purchased a refrigerator, washer, and dryer for our house as our big gifts. I gave Brandon a few this that he really needed. They were pretty lame gifts but definitely things that he needed including: razors, socks, a white dress shirt, and a otterbox for his iphone. He also got me a otterbox and some headphones for my ipod. We received a beautiful statue of a woman holding a child from Dennis and a food processor from my parents. Great gifts! The kids were so excited about their gifts.After some people prepared lunch and the rest played with the kids and their new toys. We had a delicious lunch. Chelsea and Billy had to leave. I was called into work. I only had one leg to fly to Fresno. There were no more flights to LAX that night so they were going to have me stay in a hotel. I wanted to get back home so I stayed at the airport until 8:00pm and caught a flight back to LAX on American Eagle.Justin had to leave yesterday morning. Natalie and the kids left today. Melissa is still in town until Jan 4th. It was so great having all of Brandon's family together for Christmas. I think it was really important for our family this year. I know Kemy was smiling down on us. There was nothing that made her more happy than being with her family.