Christmas 09

Taylor and Zac joined us in Lehi as soon as Christmas break started and the plan was to have them all until Christmas Eve then send the kids to Wellington to have Christmas with Daddy. It was a day I was dreading. Alone on Christmas morning for the first time since the birth of my first child more that 12 years ago. I knew the deal when I signed up for the divorce but the reality of it made my heart ache. I was excited though to have the kids together for the week and enjoy every moment of it.

We took an adventure riding the Trax to Temple Square. Sounds fun... We printed out our tickets, got the train schedule and drove to Sandy. The parking lot was full so by the time we found parking and RAN to the station, we watched the train zip by with no regard to our freezing, panting, begging faces. The next scheduled train was 1/2 hour away and you know me... I needed to find a bathroom. JOY. At least some of the kids are like their Mom and wanted to join me. So Devin, Valyssa and I raced to the gas station and back but not before the 2nd train whizzed by. We were determined though and waited in the cold. Little did we know what we were in for. Serves us right though, we put a 7 year old in charge of the tickets. Well when a 7 year old has layers upon layers of clothing on and tickets happen to fall out of them, how's he supposed to notice??? The 3rd train pulled into the station and we were there! ready! willing to board, but... tickets were nowhere to be found. JOY. We retraced steps to the car and decided to try the gas station bathroom. No luck. When we walked out of the gas station a car pulled out right where we had parked before and low and behold, laying there on the cold pavement, the tickets! We sped back to the rest of the family, who by now had been standing in the freezing cold for more than an hour, held up our found treasure but by the look in their eyes, I could see they were done. D.O.N.E. It wasn't going to stop me. I was NOT going to go through all that and give up!!! We heard a train coming right on cue and I told them to run for it. Reluctantly they followed and guess what? We made it... PHEW!! Kids are resilient. It only took a minute for them to settle in. Taylor and Zac decided to hold onto the straps and lift their feet every time we stopped or started. Fun.

Devin and Zac took off the boxing gloves long enough for me to snap this picture and then they were immediately separated again :)

Oh Boogs. She is so funny. Her nose was on the window for most of the ride looking for anything square. When she'd find something she's say: "Is that Temple Squares?"

Wrapping things up, we got one more shot of us in front of the Temple and headed back to the Trax. We got on the next train with no problem. Except it was a big problem. The train started out heading south and without even asking took a dive to the East. Puzzled I asked a couple sitting next to us where the obviously confused train engineer was taking us and they very politely told us we were headed to the U of U. NICE. We got off at the next stop, backtracked and waited for the right train. It came shortly but was PACKED!! I mean PACKED! A Christmas sing-a-long had just finished at the Energy Solutions Center and train after train was crammed like sardines. After watching 3 more trains go past we decided that the passengers on the next train were going to have to deal with 7 more because we couldn't feel certain parts of our bodies anymore. We used all forces as we climbed in, elbowed who needed elbowing, smashed toes of those who could still feel theirs and fell into place. Our place, on our train. That's right. We were shoulder to shoulder for 90 blocks. We laughed and sang Christmas carols and laughed some more. It was a horrible, wonderful evening.

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The week continued on in its usual way, lots to do, fun to be had, shopping to be done. The works. Still a feeling of sadness was in our home knowing that the BIG DAY was going to be separated for the first time ever. Last year, Derek wasn't living with us but we still had Christmas together. Then my Mom asked if I would call Derek and ask him if he'd come up and join us Christmas Eve and spend Christmas together. I jumped at the chance and Derek agreed. YES. He wanted to surprise the kids so asked me not to tell them and let him just show up. It was so hard to keep it from them, I knew how happy they'd be. Christmas Eve day came and we were planning a trip to Jump On It when Derek came through the door. The aren't words to describe the kids reaction! It was the best thing we could have given them for Christmas. We went to Jump On It, shopped for gag gifts, played pictionary, spoons and opened the gag gifts. It was so much fun!! Thanks Derek!!! And thanks Mom and Dad for making it possible.

The kids went to bed and guess who came???
Jolly ol' St. Nick!

Valyssa.....

Taylor...

Zachary...

Dang it!! Devins picture got deleted so I'll add it to the next post. Sorry sweetie!!!

It was a wonderful Christmas for us. I am so grateful to my parents for the support and love they show us. I'm so indebted to them for putting aside any differences and truly enjoying Christmas with all of us here. I am thankful for Tyler and Melissa for coming over and playing games and laughing with us Christmas Eve. I wish Ben and Janet could have been there, food poisoning is the worst! But I am especially grateful to Derek for being an excellent father. For helping me give the kids the gift of having their family all under one roof, laughing, enjoying and loving. Thank you.

Merry Christmas!!