Christmas 2019

Christmas started a 6:30 AM for Carrie and me. I'd thought, "Christmas morning doesn't feel the same without some sort of hustle and bustle to get ready..." The next thing I knew, I got what I wished for. I was assembling drawers on the bedroom floor while Carrie wrapped gifts!

Shane woke up to unexpected presents. We'd told him we were doing all the presents at Grandma and Grandpa's!

Everything's more exciting when it's a surprise!

Shane got a bunch of needed underwear, shoes, and socks that fit, but there were fun things like a How to Draw Pokemon book...

...and a Pichu!

Loki loved all the cardboard (until I took it away).

We didn't get on the road until later than expected. Carrie and I hoisted the keyboard onto the truck as a gift for Chris and Rachel.

Loki came with us.

We were going to be gone most of the day and Carrie wanted to introduce him to all of the cousins.

There was only a month's notice from the military, but Chris and his family are going to be moving back to Northern Virginia. They've spent the past years in Singapore and Italy (Chris spent time in Kuwait and other areas, as well).

They're staying at Grandpa and Grandma's until their house is ready which made for our first Christmas together in six years!

I thought we were going to get a great reaction from Grandma, but the initial thunder was stolen. Grandma gave all of us house shoes and said, "Put them on!"

Loki was already in his shoes!

I introduced the cousins to fetch.

Dogs were new to them!

Loki was a huge hit. The poor guy was poked, prodded, chased, and played with non-stop. I had to stand in his pen at one point to keep it from turning into a dog compactor!

Then the kids got in the pen while Loki ran around the outside!

Chris seemed a little concerned and told his kids not to get in the pen at one point, but I said it was safe like a shark cage!

Loki wasn't dumb enough to hop back in when the kids hopped out.

The chase was on again!

The kids all ran wild while the food was being prepped. The last time we saw Sophia was over five years ago.  Nate was a still a baby when we saw him at Christmas SIX years ago!

I firmly believe kids need to run out some energy. Loki helped with that.

Sophia showed she had the mind of a trickster hiding on the inside. She asked Shane for his Pichu and dropped it in the dog cage! Then it started with her trying to feed Loki water with a spoon, but transformed into her and Nate giving Loki a shower by the spoonful! 

Grandpa came out and read some jokes to the kids. Sophia asked me if I knew what was red, white, and blue at Christmas time (Answer: A sad candy cane).

Dinner was served early. The kids had put placemarkers with names on them, so we'd know where to sit.

The kids had originally been in the dining room, but Carrie and Chris both said, "Kid's table!" I wholeheartedly agreed!

The kids needed time to be kids and the adults needed time to be adults! I couldn't hear any notable squabbling and got to hear about how the mafia trash burning services in Naples.

Carrie helped encourage Noah to finish his food while Chris and Rachel helped clean up (I took pictures and played with kids.....so that sort of helps!).

After dinner, it was time for presents!

Sophia said, "This is the best present ever!" at least three times.

Which immediately drew Shane's attention. That's normally the type of thing he would shout!

Of course, I took lots of fun pictures. Nate loved getting some cars and Noah pointed out he already had the board game we'd got for him (oops).

I love catching a non-blurry smile. The kids were hopping all over!

The adults stayed on the fringe of the wrapping shredding frenzy.

Loki would have loved to have been even on the fringe!

I took a few aerial shots of the carnage.

No, there was no drone. I was upstairs.

I got a great photo of Nate when I hopped back downstairs.

And here's Noah hugging his mom!

Everyone started to compare their hauls while I snuck and got a brownie.

Shane was excited to get a bunch of pokeballs to catch his Pichu with. I told him not to throw them in the kitchen and (of course) one went into the dirty dish washing station a moment or two later.

I don't know if Shane tried to catch any of Nate's cars with his pokeballs.

Sophia got a watch with a camera on it. She loved running around and videotaping the dog.

Shane was happy to hop into shots and dance around like a crazy man!

We left around 6 PM. That gave us time to get home for horse chores and the cousins are still adjusting from European time. Grandpa said they'd gone to bed around 7 PM the previous night and were up around 5 AM!

Shane loved seeing his cousins. We made plans for them to visit our farm Friday. Shane was all a-jabber about it on the ride home!

Christmas Eve 2019

Why carry seven seventy-one pound gates when you can put them on the back of a gator?

It would have been good exercise, but Team Mike and Carrie's way was faster and easier! Carrie drove the gator straight into the barn and down the aisleway, too!

The day started out mostly normal, but it wasn't any normal day. It was Christmas Eve! Nana and Pop met us at Wegmans for brunch on their journey back home from visiting Jama.

Carrie, Shane, and I went out on errands after brunch. There was a new comic book store near the game store Shane and I checked out while Carrie was in the horse store.

Things got a little more festive when we got home. We didn't put up lights this year, but the tack got lit up.

The elves were at work in the barn!

Carrie and Heidi both got geared up in holiday raiment. Misha took a picture, but I haven't gotten my hands on it to post!

Loki was not exempt, either.

Shane helped hold him still while Carrie worked.

Grandma was worried Loki's nails would hurt her hardwood floor when he visited on Christmas, so Carrie bought him shoes!

They actually helped him gain traction on our floor, too! He had a lot of fun running around and playing fetch!

We played around with the slo-mo on our cameras and tried to get some action shots. I wanted to make a gif of it, but it didn't turn out as planned.

We left Loki at home when we went to Christmas Eve service in Scottsville.

Carrie and Shane were decked out in red and green. I didn't have the wardrobe to continue the pattern, so I put on purple for advent.

We plopped down in a back corner. Carrie gets anxious about drawing too much attention.

Which is the POLAR OPPOSITE of Shane!

During a choir song, Shane commented the tenor had a "manly voice," which made me snort, the man in front of us chuckle, and Carrie choke.

I got a covert shove when I dropped an octave in the next song and asked Shane how manly my voice was.

I whispered, by the way. I like a good joke, but not unnecessary attention or to distract from worship.

Shane started to reply loudly. He's all about that attention and I had to quickly shush him before he got too much of it!

Two kids went up for the children's message. Can you guess which one was having a discussion with the Pastor?

It was almost a conversational message! Pastor Tom said it was his 66th Christmas and Shane estimated it was the 30th Christmas for the mother next to him! (Thankfully, an underestimate!) Carrie's nails dug into my arm and she shrunk a little behind me!

Pastor Tom told Shane about an incident near his 8th or 9th Christmas where Pastor Tom and his sister somehow got involved in a mustard fight. A chair was collateral damage.

"I'd never seen my mom that mad," Pastor Tom said.

"THAT must have hurt!" Shane interjected.

Carrie turned red.

"It did. Literally!" Pastor Tom replied.

Carrie turned even redder!

Everyone else was laughing! Me included.

Shane started drawing once he got back to our seats.

He'd been inspired!

We gave Pastor Tom the picture on the way out. He was a fan!

I would have liked to watch some Christmas shows to end the night, but Carrie and Shane watched Gargoyles on Disney+ instead. Shane got to stay up a little late to encourage him to sleep in a little for Christmas morning!