Christmas started early for us this year. It began a week before the actual holiday with the Children's Christmas Program at Church. I didn't intend for Madison to participate this year even though I was going to be singing with our new church's Contemporary Worship Team. Maddie hadn't gone to any of the rehearsals until the morning of the day of the program. I had to be there for my practice and I brought her along. The leaders said she could still participate if she wanted. That evening, her lack of rehearsal was evident in that she didn't know any of the songs and just danced around on the stage. Oh well. I hope everyone was entertained.
The next day, we celebrated Christmas with Bryan's parents (and Aunt Marlene). This is also the time when we exchanged our gifts to each other.
On Wednesday we took off early for Michigan to spend Christmas with my family. We stopped in Columbus, OH that evening for dinner with Bryan's Uncle Larry & Aunt Kay then on to the Kushnirs to spend the night. We exchanged gifts with them the next morning then made our way to Michigan in the afternoon.
Maddie had a great time playing with her cousins and also playing in the snow. She even help frost some cookies.
Christmas Eve evening we went to church and then next door to my Grandpa's house for the Cook Family Chirstmas.
Afterwards we got ready for bed and left cookies & milk for Santa.
We awoke the next morning to find the cookies & milk all gone and new presents under the tree! Madison wasn't quite sure what to make of all this.
After opening presents from Santa, Sam, Kristie, & the boys came over and we exchanged gifts from them and from my parents. Maddie is definitely loved. She got so many presents. I can't believe we were able to fit all of them in the car.
We left early the following morning. It had snowed a bit overnight. There wasn't much in terms of accumulation, but the roads were VERY slick. Only a few portions of the highway had been treated. It took us an hour just to get to the state line (which is only about 30 miles away). We saw no less than 30 accidents along our route home. One was just a couple cars in front of us. As Bryan slowed down, even he started to slide. He quickly gained control and all was fine. It was pretty scary, though. The roads & weather finally started to get better as we started heading west into Indiana. By the time we got back to Missouri, the sky was actually clear. But now the sun was starting to set and the temperatures quickly dropped to the teens.
All in all it was a very nice Christmas. I know Maddie greatly enjoyed it - which makes it all worthwhile.
