Christmas Eve

This year's Christmas Eve started out a bit different. We all got dressed up in the morning and made our way towards beautiful Eden for a wedding! Danny had been asked by his good friends Jerry and Karen to perform their wedding ceremony for them. That in and of itself is cool, but what is even cooler is that Danny actually set the two of them up! Danny met Jerry back when he started working at Edwards AFB, and the two of them always got along really well. Jerry is a huge outdoor enthusiast, and after we had relocated to Utah he started showing some interest in coming out here as well. After all, the skiing, snowboarding, hiking, mountain biking, and parasailing is WAY better out here than it is in Lancaster. :) It wasn't long after we moved here that Jerry followed, and a while after that Danny met Karen at a new employee orientation when he returned to government service. Karen had just moved here, all on her own, from Puerto Rico to start working at Hill AFB. She didn't know a soul, and Danny worried about her being in a new place all by herself. Didn't I marry the best guy? :) He immediately sent an email to Jerry telling him that he should connect with her since neither one of them had many friends the area. Jerry took her out on a date right away, and they've been together ever since. :)

Anyway, the wedding was set to take place in their gorgeous home in Eden...and it offered a stunning view! It was the first day in a week that it wasn't gray and snowy, and it was just breathtaking. It was a very small ceremony, with only Jerry's parents and his sister and her husband in attendance. Besides us and our three kids. :) Claire, Sophie, and Johnny behaved wonderfully, and they LOVED playing with the dogs! Danny did a superb job of the ceremony. This being his second wedding during December, he's basically a pro now. :) He even performed Karen's portion of the ceremony in Spanish, which she really appreciated. We stayed for lunch and enjoyed visiting with Jerry, Karen, and their family. It was a wonderful way to start Christmas Eve!

The rest of the day was spent getting ready to leave for California the next day, and of course our Christmas Eve dinner. This year we were having steaks and parmesan potatoes, and we invited Grandma Candy and Uncle Nick to join us. We ate by candle light, thus keeping with our tradition that reminds Danny of his Christmas Eve dinners by candle light as a child. Dinner was delicious, and the company was even better. :)

We visited for a bit before Grandma Candy and Nick headed home, and then it was pretty much bedtime! The kids got Santa's treats out for him (Christmas Tree cake and egg nog), and were obviously very excited and very much NOT ready to go to sleep.

But Mom and Dad were running out of energy, and they still had some work to do. And we didn't want Santa to pass our house by, did we? So we got the kids tucked in for our family sleepover in our bedroom. Claire was on a makeshift bed on the floor, Sophie was on the bench, and Johnny was on an  air mattress by the window. 

After we got them tucked in, Danny made his way over to his parents' house to drop off Maese for the week. Johnny was beside himself that he wouldn't see Maese for such a long time! Seriously, he cried for probably 20 minutes. Poor boy. He kept saying how much he was going to miss his dog brother! Eventually, he cried himself out and went to sleep...

Last year, after our kids were asleep and we were just about done with our Christmas preparations, we got a knock on the door. David, Camillia, and Colleen Cole had come to present us with a painting of Luke and the Savior that she had done for us. Along with it, she had written a letter to us from herself, and a letter to us from Luke. So this year, when the kids were asleep and our Christmas preparations were done, Danny and I sat together and read that letter from Luke. The tears flowed freely as we took those few minutes and missed our baby boy with a certain intensity. In order to provide a wonderful holiday for our older children, and so that we aren't a mess for weeks, we really don't let ourselves immerse ourselves in those emotions. But for those few minutes, in the quiet of our home all ready for Christmas morning, we just missed our boy and wished with all our hearts he could have stayed with us. Once I had cried myself out and made a complete mess of Danny's shirt, we shut out the lights (leaving only Luke's little tree lit) and tucked ourselves into bed.

After all, we had quite the day ahead of us!