A month of celebration, food, family, and gifts.
Carson turned three. I can’t believe it has been three years. In some ways it seems as though she has been here forever. It is difficult to imagine life without her, but in other ways it is amazing how much she has changed in such a short amount of time. Everyone always asks us, “How will you celebrate her birthday since it is on Christmas day? How will you make her feel special?” Well it doesn’t seem to be much of a problem. Carson had three awesome birthday parties. She got to celebrate with her friends: a homemade bunny cake, books, and gingerbread men; she celebrated with Nonnie and Pop: mud cake (she didn’t even hesitate while inhaling a spoonful of “mud” and a big gummy worm), tons of beautifully homemade gifts, cousin Kendall, and pin the nose on Santa; And while in Mission Viejo for the holidays we had another birthday celebration: treats all day long, tons of new books, and lots of attention. Does she feel special? I think so.
Nick ran once again in the CIM Marathon in Sacramento. Unfortunately, this year, he was sick the entire week leading up to the race. So regardless of his strict training schedule and his intense motivation, he was unable to run as fast as he would have liked. He is still amazing to have finished it while feeling so terrible. Nick’s parents and Jessica, Chad and the boys were able to come up and watch Nick run. We had fun visiting and Nick enjoyed seeing more people cheering him on along the 26.2-mile course.
For Christmas we celebrated early with Morgan’s family. Janeene, Foster and Kendall were able to come up the weekend before and celebrate with us. We trudged through snow (well Foster and Pop did) to get a 19 ft. Christmas tree for Nonnie and Pop’s house. We played the Christmas game and had a fun stocking exchange. Nonnie and Pop made Carson and Bracken a teeter totter (recreated from an old one Papa Dave made long ago). After the Newton celebrations, we drove down to Southern California to visit with Nick’s family. We were able to spend a week in Mission Viejo. Carson and Bracken loved getting to play with their cousins, Lincoln and Paxton. We all are excited for next Christmas when Carson, Bracken, Lincoln and Paxton will all be running around pestering one another. For Christmas, Carson and Bracken were surprised in the morning to find a new soccer goal and some clothes for Carson’s baby doll.
Our Water for Christmas project was a huge success. With the help of many people, we were able to send about $4000 to El Porvenir. This money will go towards the building of two wells in Nicaragua. We have yet to tally up our Christmas spending, but we know we spent significantly less than last year. As we attempted this Christmas to spend less so that we could give more, we realized how much thought it takes to come up with gifts that you can’t buy. So, in some ways we found ourselves less excited about some of the gifts we gave because we couldn’t spend as much money, but we will only get better with each year at coming up with gifts that take more time and creativity and less cash.
As we reflect upon 2008 we feel a sense of peace and thankfulness. We love being a family and we love learning every year more and more about the type of family we want to become.