The "Blur" of 2008

This season has been a little bit of a blur for me. I am a little jealous of some of you as I read your blogs and saw all of the relaxing family memories you all made together this year. I don't know if it was the packing/not-moving, a husband who wants to squeeze every bit of holiday fun into a couple weeks, me working, or the travelling, but this season was an absolute blur for me. I know we did a lot and enjoyed a lot, but it didn't feel like Christmas, and for that I am sad. I feel like I talked about Christmas a lot, but never slowed enough to let it sink in, fester with joy for a while, and make family memories to last a whole year! I'll just share a few stories and pictures from the blur that was Christmas 2008.

Here's how it all broke down for us at our house: we began the week before Christmas halting our moving date, so decided to get the Christmas stuff down and put up a tree at our current residence. We didn't even put the usual light display and all of the ornaments on the tree, but it was still one of the best trees ever!! Grayson had a blast putting the ornaments on. I love that each ornament tells a story. I know many of you have your pretty trees, but ours is always one of memories and stories. Besides the tree, we had a few candles that made it out of storage boxes, but that was it for decor!

As I stayed for our Sunday Christmas program at church, Trevor and Grayosn flew to Mickey's to spend a few days celebrating with Trevor's parents. I flew straight from church on Sunday to join them for dinner with Cinderella and Prince Charming. Days at Disney are always fabulous and we never tire of going to the "most magical place on earth". It is an amazing place to be at Christmas time. The fireworks shows, riding all Grayson's favorite rides, a few autographs, breakfast with Mickey and the gang, enjoying the resort to the fullest, amazing food, monorail and boat rides galore, etc. We even were able to hear Steven Curtis Chapman read the Christmas story and lay out the gospel message at Epcot one evening.

We flew home literally in time to change clothes and head to church for the Christmas Eve service. Thinking that the service was family friendly, we took Grayson, only to realize about 45 minutes in that this was the real deal. It was pretty neat though because Grayson got to partake his first communion with Trevor and I (Oh, I guess that posting has never made it out yet!! PS everyone---Grayson accepted Jesus as Savior on 12-12!!!!!!) We had a great dinner that night, McDonalds! A true treat for everyone!! Sigh! Grayson got to sleep much later than usual, I followed much later than my usual, and Trevor made it to bed in the wee hours of twilight.

Grayson gave us all a great gift by sleeping in until almost 8:00!! We did stockings, read the Christmas story from his Bible, sang a few songs, prayed together, and then divulged on the tree and the gifts. Trevor's is going to be lovin' his new Wii system, I joined the ranks of the other ladies with a super fabulous new camera (which I'll have to take the classes to be able to use!)and an iPod. Surprisingly, Grayson opened all but one gift and stated that "Santa must not have been able to get me the guitar this year. Maybe next year!" He had not even noticed it leaning up against the windowsill in the protective white bag with a large ribbon it, with a sticker labelled 'Special Delivery from the North Pole'!!! After opening his special Santa gift, he found that Santa had sent him a map and clues to find a secret gift. Santa had delivered a gift to our new house. So Christmas morning at 11:00am in pajamas, we all drove to our new house to follow the map to Santa's special gift. Parked in the garage was a fire truck powerwheel!! He was so excited and is already an excellent driver. For sure he can't wait for us to move so he can enjoy it every day!

After all of the morning fun, we showered, unpacked a little, and repacked a quick suitcase. We needed to be in Lynchburg by dinner time!! We stopped by the Boyers to drop off some treats as we wouldn't be able to be there after all for the Christmas luncheon. The drive to Lynchburg went by fast! We were so thankful for a Wendy's in Petersburg as it was the only food joint open on Christmas Day!!! In the busyness of the morning, none of had eaten breakfast or lunch before we got on the road.

We arrived in Lynchburg in time for supper, and then had another round of Christmas stories, songs, and more gift-giving. Grayson (well all of us for that matter!) are extremely blessed by our families. Poor little guy really can't wait to move, as many of the gifts went straight to the moving pile and didn't even make it out of their packaging! As one of my friends said, he will have Christmas all over when we finally move!! We were able to relax for the day on Friday and play some games and have some more good food with my family.

We came home Saturday for Trevor to be at church Sunday. Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday were great family days, although Grayson picked up some sort of bug and was sick to his stomach a couple times on a few different days! It was random. We got a lot accomplished for our new home, I got a little work in, we packed boxes and threw a lot away together...we just chilled out as a family. That is exactly what I needed, just a week too late maybe! Grayson's bedroom got painted at our new house (thank you Denise!!), and the rest of the upstairs is ready for the finishing touches (thank you David!).

Wednesday was New Year's Eve and Trevor had a Lock-In at our church with the teenagers. He rested for some of the day and then headed out at 7pm. I got Grayson to bed and then actually got a lot of work done. I rented a couple of movies but ended up falling asleep really early! Trevor came home New Year's morning at 8:30am and obviously slept the day away. Grayson and I stayed busy away from the house so he could sleep, even making it over the visit sweet baby LauraBeth!!

The last couple of days were equally relaxing, just trying to reorganize the house, take down the tree we barely enjoyed, run some errands together, etc. Today it was back to the grind as work beckoned me. And there it was, 2 weeks that went by with a blur, but with a few relaxing days squeezed in, I'm ready to face the next few weeks that will prove to be crazy busy!! Moving day is really bearing down on us now!! bring it on--I'm ready! The New Year of 2009 is off with a running start!!