On the wings of prayer: Christmas with Too Far Away Family

We left for Indiana on Weds. afternoon after Analise was finished with school at 1:15. We hit the road at 2:30 and made good time to our hotel five hours away. We were blessed to be upgraded to a bigger room, so that was nice having extra space! We let the girls swim for awhile before going to bed. And actually Analise was the only one that swam; the other two hung out in the hot tub with me. :)

We made rest of the long journey on Thursday. Thankfully Brandon found a way around the major city that always gives us fits. I'll choose quiet country roads over major traffic any day. The girls did awesome in the van. They played, colored, sang songs, did Mad Libs and watched movies. We now have enough headsets for each girls to have her own. Yeah!

After a dinner of steak and salmon, the girls just HAD to take a bubble bath in the jet tub. Aunt Peg got to witness the crazy fun.

We had a quiet Christmas Eve at home. While the girls rested, Brandon and I ventured out to the mall so he could look for black shoes. We had pizza for dinner and then headed to church for the Christmas Eve service. It was wonderful to sing with my family and for the pastor to remind us what a gift the Father sent to us - His Son Jesus! The girls did a nice job of sitting quietly during the service. It probably helped that the adults out numbered kids. After we got home from the service, we took a few pictures, put the girls to bed, and Brandon went to bed, too, because he wasn't feeling well. Rest of us played the game Sequence. I loved that time of togetherness filled with lots of laughter. Here are some pictures from that night:

I was so proud of the girls on Christmas Day. First of all - they didn't get up super early! And when they did wake up, they were so patient in opening gifts. Brandon was still not feeling well, so he didn't come down until after lunch. We went ahead and opened stockings and Peg and Danny's gifts. We were SUPER blessed with great gifts. We did stockings first. Our stockings are the best; they are full of practical and impractical things. And they aren't small by any means.

Sadie and her stocking:

After stockings, we went upstairs and ate the traditional Christmas breakfast: cinnamon twist coffeecake and sausage/egg casserole. Mmmm...after that we opened part some of the gifts. I love how we open from youngest to oldest, one at a time. It stretches out the fun that way. :)

Aunt Peg and Uncle Danny blessed the girls with the Kid's Dance for the Wii. Lots of fun!

Though Brandon wasn't there, I let each of the girls open their Santa gift. I took video of it so he could see their reactions. I say Santa did pretty good. :)
Sadie and her new laptop.

A Cinderella set for Maisie, my princess girl

Whoo-hoo! Analise now has her own Razor scooter!

My mom made another delicious meal - salad, prime rib, mashed spuds, carrot souffle, rolls.

We were able to open gifts with Brandon in the late afternoon. Thankfully he was feeling better by then. Here he is with his stocking. I wonder where Analise is...