The Lost Christmas

I got a big kick out of the "Christmas Eve paparrazi" taking photos of Papa Hale reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to the little ones! We all tried to be festive on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day but the truth is that there was a lot of sadness hanging in the air. The day after Christmas, Brent and I left with Laura and Jordan and Lucy for Atlanta, to help them get settled in their new life there.

I realized that there's a definite "blogging gap" between my "Not Loving My Advent Calendar" post and my "Exorcising the February from my Soul" post. I'm calling it the Lost Christmas/Moving Laura and Jordan to Atlanta gap. My heart was just too heavy to think about it or write about it. This has been a difficult transition period for both Brent and I but I feel like I'm starting to catch on to the rhythm of this new "dance" that we're doing . . . the "empty-nesting dance" if you will. Life really is like a dance, as far as I'm concerned, and when the music changes it takes awhile for me to settle comfortably into the new beat. I feel like I'm moving well enough to the new music of my life that I can face those difficult few weeks at the end of December and the beginning of January and record them for posterity!
The annual reading, by Papa, of "Twas the Night Before Christmas".
We had a couple of tired little ones so we didn't stand on ceremony for our depiction of the Nativity this year. We just all put on scarves and genuine shepherd head-dresses and did the best we could! I thought this photo of Adelaide was precious.
Annie, "Mary" and baby Jesus.
These two look more like terrorists than shepherds.
Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus (circa, flight into Egypt).
Mary and Joseph, a couple of shepherds, whatever you will. We really enjoyed the little bit of time that we had with Steve and Kalli at Christmas time. Kalli arrived on the 16th of December and Steve didn't come until the 22nd and then Brent and I had to leave on the 26th. We surely wished we could have had more time with them. Steve made a pot of his famous borscht soup for Christmas Eve. He learned to make it when he was in Ukraine. It was delicious and warmed my soul a little!
I went out of the room to help Laura put Lucy to bed and came back to this! I couldn't believe how calm and cooperative that Adelaide was being, while stuffed into this giant Christmas stocking. Scott, Rach and Adelaide are the only kids/grandkids who live nearby and I hope that doesn't change any time soon!

Christmas morning by the tree downstairs. We REALLY were trying to be festive but if you look at our eyes, you can tell that we weren't quite pulling it off.
Jordan was very happy with this quilt that Laura made from all his old t-shirts (with much help from her good friends Bethany and Lindsey). Laura was happy that she managed to actually surprise him, for once! Laura, somehow I didn't get a decent photo of you on Christmas eve or Christmas day but I'll make up for it in my next post about the move to Atlanta.

Anyway, to all my kids out there, near and far, I love you all, think of you constantly and will miss you always. That's just the way it is. But I promise to be much more festive next Christmas if you'll come . . . okay?! Til next time . . .