Christmas Morning

Due to the random shots, I thought it would be sweet to post many of these pictures sans wording. Some were just nice to catch "in the act." Again, a huge thanks to all of you who sent the kids things for Christmas. While far away from family and friends, we feel truly loved and blessed. Last December, we were preparing ourselves for Edward being deployed this Christmas, and what a difference a year makes. Last Christmas Eve, Edward's birthday, we accepted the Yuma assignment after thinking and praying on it for about a day (the chain of command couldn't give us time to mull it over). We were unable to tell people, aside from our immediate family, for several months due to the nature of the job. This year, in this strange desert, we brought out our old traditions to add to our new Arizona desert life.

Edward and I decided years ago that when we had kids, our family tradition would be to be in our home, wherever in the world that might be, every year on Christmas morning. No matter where the Army might send us, we wanted our kids to grow up knowing that wherever we might be, Christmas morning was at our home.

Santa brought the kids just a couple of things and the rest are from family and friends. Santa dropped off a new dollhouse for Madison and a new truck and Elmo (no, he didn't splurge for the expensive one out now) for Luke. Both kids were delighted with the new sheets Santa brought them-Ariel ones for Madison and Thomas the Train ones for Luke. We had to laugh because during the unwrapping, Madison disappeared back to the bedroom where she took the sheets off of her bed for her new ones and put on her new Ariel pj's Santa also brought her (Jen, the pj's have a striking resemblance to ones we found in Raleigh!). The kids had a wonderful morning, and we enjoyed watching them through it all.