Christmas 2020

For my kids entire lives, we have had Christmas Eve with the Lang gang.  A time or 2 it was held early or maybe even late, but it has always been a part of their Christmas.  They were sort of sad about covid ruining it for them.  We decided to make Christmas Eve a candy making day. Mallory joined us and was a ton of help!   Cameron and Lauren were able to join us for church and dinner.  

It wasn’t quite the same, but it was a nice day.   Mallory even got Quincy to consent to having her hair curled.  A true Christmas miracle!  

The Saint Francis children sang “Away in a Manger” and it was very nice.  I have to thank Lauren who was somehow talked into singing with Saige.  Lauren is awesome!   

It was a really nice, and not all that crowded service.  I am very happy that we got to attend mass.   I understand precautions but I just couldn’t imagine Christmas without Christmas mass!  

Mallory and Cameron helped me get everything ready for Christmas morning.  I thought my kids were all to an age that we would be allowed to sleep in on Christmas morning.   At 6:30 (not sleeping in time) Olive began barking very loudly.  Turns out, she had a good reason as Colin and Spencer came in my door!  It was a really nice surprise that they got here so early!   We had almost all the kids home for Christmas morning!  

We were all blessed with nice gifts and had a breakfast of biscuits and gravy eaten by 7:30!   

Later in the morning, Evelyn, Madison and Andrew came over to hang out with us!  I was so happy that we had our kids all home at one point or the other this year.  I know not everyone was so lucky.  

We had a little visit from Grandma Nancy and a zoom Christmas visit with Jim’s side of the family.  Definitely not our normal Christmas!  This whole year has been not been our normal.  We have skipped family gatherings. We have made the best of strange situations.  We have tried to follow weird regulations.   

A little side note, we all love the significant others our children have picked.  We feel like they are such amazing people and awesome additions to our family!  I feel blessed by this.  

We also did something we have never done and ordered pizza for dinner!  It was nice to take a break from cooking!  

Our little sweet granddaughter officially turned 2 yesterday.  She is an amazingly funny, sassy, sweet addition to our family as well.   We had so much fun watching her excitement today!  As they were leaving, she discovered that our tree had candy canes on it!   She had to take a few for the road.  ;)

As much as I crave our old traditions and family gatherings, I feel like this Christmas was still amazing.   We are incredibly blessed.  Happy birthday Jesus!