Grandparent Christmases

 Sheats Christmas is

cousins, reading the Christmas story, singing Joy to the World,

giving gifts,

being with Mom and Dad, sitting long around the table, pizza and shrimp and cookies,

playing games that turn out to be hard,

sweating from playing soccer and manhunt, and decorating gingerbread cookies.

The last round of manhunt took a bit of a turn. Caleb and Josiah hid so well under the boat trailer in complete darkness. No one could find them to the point that Isaiah was sobbing because he was so scared that Josiah was lost in the woods somewhere. That was the note the night ended on.

Heslop Christmas didn't go quite how we expected it would. Baby Ronan tested positive for flu the day we arrived and so we didn't get to see him open gifts for his first Christmas. And we didn't get to see him walking. But mostly we just want him to feel better quickly so that his mom and dad can get some sleep again! We were happy that Joel could come over while we opened gifts and Amanda could come visit the next day.

The sun was warm enough for a little chalk drawing and paper airplane flying.

There was lots of time to rest. I read a lot between visiting.

And we got Karen's garden beds filled with dirt--our gift to her. We brought dirt with us and we made a trip to Lowe's to get the rest of the dirt we needed. I continue to be amazed at what a difference Karen's heart surgery has made for her quality of life. I'm thankful that she is on this side of it and able to do all the things that she wants to do including gardening this spring!