Whew! Another holiday season has come and gone. It was a great time filled with love, laughter, family and friends. Once again, Steve and I headed to Des Moines to spend Christmas with the world’s cutest nieces. Oh, and my sister and brother-in-law too! It was the first time in several years we didn’t experience a white Christmas, which was odd, but it was nice not to battle the weather. On Christmas Day we were able to take a walk and enjoy some sunshine before dinner.
As usual, the girls provided us with much entertainment as they tore into their gifts on Christmas Day. The day before, my mom had surprised them with handmade velvet stockings similar to the ones she made for my sister and I. They were delighted to have “fancy” stockings but Julia immediately started worrying that Santa might get confused over the fact they each had two socks. The solution was for them to hide their old socks so Santa wouldn’t make any mistakes.
Ralph and Blair always wraps Santa’s gifts and place them under the tree. Santa uses different wrapping paper and each girl gets the same number of gifts. That’s important, you know, because they come downstairs and start counting their stash! Lydia announced that she knew Santa had gotten her a new Care Bear so naturally that was her first gift to open. The joy and delight of being around them makes the holiday special.
Around noon we did some Face Time with mom and Burl in Arizona. While I love the technology, Face Time isn’t my favorite thing. I knew it was important to mom so I played along, but it can’t replace being in person and enjoying the moment face to face.
The day after Christmas my sister and I hit the mall early for some retail therapy. The stores weren’t busy and we had fun bonding over some shopping. Julia was disappointed she wasn’t included, but we had plenty of time with her and Lydia before we hit the road home.
Next year we’re looking forward to having mom and Burl here for Christmas. We don’t know if we’ll be in Des Moines or Springfield, but we do know we’ll be with family and that’s what Christmas is all about.
Pretty Pretty Bang Bang 
I agree, it certainly wasn’t the same and I had to play along too – but FaceTime was better than not getting to see you at all. Definitely looking forward to being in Springfield next year over the holidays so we can be together.
oops, hey guys just to set the record straight, Tammy has a dad also