{A New Christmas Tradition}

This year was the start of a new Christmas tradition for us...and we're still fine tuning it! We usually go to my Grandma and Grandpa Deffenbaugh's for Christmas Eve, then my Dad's Christmas morning, then my Mom's side Christmas evening. That's been the norm for about the last 26 years, until this year. Joe couldn't get Christmas Eve off, so that through everything out of whack. We decided it was a blessing in disguise because we love to be at our own church for Christmas Mass (hey, did you know that's where the word Christmas came from, "Christ's Mass?) Anyway, I was a little sad not being with my family but excited to start new traditions too. Next year in our own house we will really try to figure out "our traditions" but this year was special too, we got to spend it with the Rainbolt family, Luke's godparents. We went to Christmas Eve Mass (without Luke, so Joe and I were able to focus, and he got quality time with the Rainbolts!). Then Christmas morning we woke up and opened presents, Luke got a DVD player for the car from us and a Urlacher jersey, firetruck, and bag of cars from the Rainbolts. We had a lazy morning and then headed to Anne's for Joe's mom's Christmas. We had a great time with his family, and then headed up to my dad's. We got to my dad's just before 1 am, and Luke woke up long enough to open his stocking and say hello to everyone. We woke up the morning of the 26 th and opened presents with my dad's family - Luke got the coolest wagon, we call it a wagosuine (wagon+limosuine). It's pretty awesome, I'm sure we'll post pics when it gets warmer. He was spoiled with lots of other fun stuff, then we followed up with the traditional pancake breakfast - YUM! That evening we headed to my mom's side and had a fun night of games and staying up late. The next day we did Christmas with them and Luke got a cool bulldozer and lots of jammies, spoiled again... We headed home the 28th (Happy 26th Birthday to me!) I didn't take a single picture the whole time! I'm a little sad, but it was nice to not be tied to the camera like I normally am. So I am very sorry to disappoint with no pics... Hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas!