Christmas!

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year. First I have to thank all the sweet, generous people who gave to us so that our Christmas was perfect. I don't even know who all of them are, but I know that they sacrificed for us. What better example of the true spirit of Christmas can be found than that of people giving to uplift those around them?
This year the true meaning of Christmas was more important than ever. We talked about it often with Julia. Knowing that the Son of God was born so that He could live and die and then live again gives us hope in our loss. Remembering Christ helped to ease the pain of Christmas without Adria. It won't be next Christmas or one any time soon, but we will have Christmas with her one day because of Jesus Christ and His love for each of us.
Now, on to the pictures.
For Christmas Eve we went to Matt and Ali's and had dinner and a talent show. The girls had a great time, as always.

I took a video of Julia's talent, so I don't have a picture to post, but she did a ballet dance to Waltz of the Snowflakes from the Nutcraker. She had learned it in class and was very specific as to what I was supposed to do. She really knew it well. I was impressed. She started out just dancing and then 2 minutes in she used a ribbon and then 2 minutes later some white bows. Then she had me throw out handfuls of white bows (to look like snow) at very specific times in the music. Most importantly, she had a great time!
Here she is with Matt singing Christmas carols.

The girls all wanted to be close to the piano.

It ended up with 4 girls sitting on the bench with Matt. I was impressed that he was still playing! That is skill!

Then it was time to go home so Santa could come before it was 4am again.

I asked Julia if she wanted to set out the cookies for Santa and she decided that he would prefer her favorite snack which was bread with frosting on it. I thought it sounded gross, but Santa "ate" all of it. What a great guy, that Santa!

Here is the letter he left for her.

Julia's elf made sure that she couldn't sneak out to see her presents. Then he left us until next year.

Here are some pictures of our very spoiled girls on Christmas morning.

We all look our best at the crack of dawn, right?

Why are you touching me!? Give back the chocolate!

I am happy to just sit here and eat chocolate all day long.

The highly anticipated Lalaloopsy doll. Thanks Jess, Tyler and Maddi!

Lincoln Logs from Grandma Julie. These have already been very loved!

Even Daddy needs a toy so Santa brought him Legos!

Ben asked me if there was anything I wanted for Christmas and I replied that I didn't care as long as it was fun and not lame like food or something. Obviously I shouldn't have been surprised to open a whole pile of groceries on Christmas morning.

Ben taped IOUs to each one for something fun, like a pedicure, a girls night out, a weekend away, shopping for a new car, etc. It was one of the most thoughtful Christmases ever.

A really fun puzzle from Jared and Kim. Julia loves it!

This was Kara's very favorite gift! Its a touch and feel ABC book from Grandma and she dragged it all around the rest of the morning. It's in her bed now and she loves it!

I got the girls angel statues to open from Adria.

Julia put hers in her room and said that now Adria is always watching over her at night.

It was a fun Christmas for all of us. Thank you again to everyone who was so kind! We love you all.

The years go by...

As we sit here using Google Earth to track Santa, I can't help but realize how fast my baby has grown.

Julia's 1st Christmas, 2006

Christmas 2007

Christmas 2008

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2010

The North Pole

In Greer, AZ there is a magic portal that takes very good little girls and boys to the North Pole to visit Santa's workshop. Julia has certainly been a very good girl this year so when the opportunity came up, we couldn't say no. Our friends have a cabin near Greer so we didn't have to pay the North Pole rates to stay overnight. We had such a wonderful time. Our friends have three little girls and so Julia and Kara were never bored. I think Julia would move in with them if I would let her. Their little three year old kept calling Julia her best friend all weekend. I'd let her move in with us if her mom wouldn't miss her! So the girls played in the snow and drank hot chocolate and played in the snow some more.

Yes, that is Ben aiming a giant snowball at his crippled wife. It wasn't the first one either.

Then we went to Greer. Here we are waiting for the Candy Cane Express to come whisk us away to Santa's workshop.

Getting on the Candy Cane Express.

At the doors of the workshop.

Meeting the elves.

Helping Santa make toys.

Eating cookies with the elves.

Learning what the elves do at the Elf University.

Reading stories with Mrs. Claus

Meeting Santa!!

Our friends had gone through first and very sweetly told Santa about Adria. He talked to Julia about her and told Julia that she was with us at the North Pole. It meant so much to Julia. I, on the other hand, was crying like a baby. Ben was glad we went until it came time to drive back to the cabin. The North Pole weather had followed us back to Greer and we now had a 40 mile drive in the dark through almost 12 inches of snow. Just when we were on the home stretch our GPS failed us. I took us down the wrong street. Unfortunately it was a hill that hadn't been plowed and our poor rear wheel drive Caddie got stuck. Then we got it out. Then we got stuck again. Then we got it out. Then stuck again. The last 5 miles took almost 2 hours. But we made it. The next morning we woke up to find that the snow had continued all night. It was breathtaking!

Luckily for us it had also been plowed so we headed home.

We truly had a magical weekend. We are so glad our friends invited us to join them! Thanks guys!!