Christmas Traditions- BROKEN!

If you're going to break traditions, you may as well do so in a BIG WAY - that's what I say.  And that's exactly what we did this Christmas.  Ever since Sierra has been around, our Christmases have been spent around the fireplace at the cabin.  We play games, go sledding, watch movies, do puzzles, etc.  Not so this year!

 

The girls were beyond excited about their very first airplane trip. (Sierra had flown during her first year of life - but that doesn't count.)  This was no small jaunt either - we were going  to fly with the Becks and Grandpa and Grandma Cook all the way to FLORIDA!  Their carry-ons were stuffed with snacks and activities and we were ready for an adventure.

We were the first of the Cook clan to arrive for our big family reunion.  I can't believe that I didn't take pictures of the outside of the houses, but we stayed in a vacant house right next door to my Grandma and Uncle Gary's place in Mulberry, FL.  They had every detail arranged and ready - from snacks in the pantry to shampoo in the bathrooms.  We have lots of family already in Florida, but the rest of us were coming from Idaho, Michigan and Brazil.  There was an average of 30 people around for most of the meals.  I can't even begin to explain what a special time this was.  If you are blessed to be part of a big, loving, Christian family, then you will understand.


One of the highlights of the trip was our day at Disney World.  Even Mom got to come!  We prayed so hard for her to be able to make the trip to Florida - and here she was with us at Disney!  She spent the day in a wheel chair, but she was able to ride a couple of rides, watch the parade and just be with us.

This next sequence of pictures is one of my favorites ever!  Marc was clicking away as we tried to decide which direction we should go in the park.  Do you know this feeling?!?!   That's my cousin Mike who joined us for the day.

Mom's injury allowed all of us to scoot to the front of the line a couple of times - here she is getting into Small World.

Of course, we had to take my Dad on the teacups.  I think that he may finally have met his match with my girls.

The castle was beautifully lit for Christmas.  The park closed early that night for a separate event, but we were tired and happy to go home at about 7:00p.m.

The next few days were filled with fun theme dinners - we had Mexican night, Italian night, Brazilian night and American night.  Tables were set up under a tent outside and the decorations changed with each event.  It was unbelievable!  My Uncle Gary had been planning and working on this for months.  No detail was left out.

Here are some of the cousins (first and second generation) enjoying our Brazilian day.  What a special bond we have because of the many years that we have all spent in Brazil as missionary kids.  Poor Marc was lost with all the Portuguese being spoken!

Another highlight of the trip was being able to meet up with Marc's younger brother, Dustin, at the aquarium in Tampa.  We have not seen him in about 12 or 13 years and he had never met our girls.  It was great for Marc to catch up with him and to spend the day together.

Unfortunately, Ally was very sick for a few days in the middle of our trip.  She had a high fever which really knocked her out.  Sierra came down with it too, but not quite so bad.  Ally missed meeting Uncle Dustin and going to the aquarium the first time...

 

...but as soon as she felt better, she and I went back just by ourselves.

 

Then this happened:

 

Christmas Eve was a big event with lots of family pictures.  Here's my Grandma Cook - hostess extraordinaire and proud matriarch of the Cook family.
 

Marc's birthday is the day after Christmas and we spent it at Clearwater Beach in Florida - a pretty fantastic place to spend a birthday!  The sand is like bleached flour there and the sun was gorgeous.

It was hard to say goodbye to family and to Florida!  We are very, very grateful to have been able to go and will treasure the memories of those special days.  Thanks so much to those who made it possible for us to be there - you know who you are.  There are so many more details that I want to remember, but they will stay with the 300+ pictures in our photo album for now.

Leading up to Christmas

As many of you already know, the end of November brought quite a surprise.  I got a call from my Dad one Saturday morning saying that Mom had fallen off of a ladder while watering plants on a high plant shelf inside their house.  I knew that it was serious when they told me that she was being taken by ambulance to the hospital for x-rays.  My parents don't EVER call 9-1-1.  They had. 

 

Mom spent a week in the hospital and at a rehab center trying to get her pain under control and learning how to get in and out of bed, get to the restroom, etc.  She had broken her pelvis in four places. (OUCH!)  It was hard to watch her go through so much pain and I know that it was difficult for her to learn to depend on so many people to help her with basic needs and chores.  Our church family was such a blessing as they provided medical equipment for her when she came home, brought meals, cleaned house, and prayed, prayed, prayed!

 

Mom was able to attend the luncheon at the end of our Bible study series for the fall semester.  It was wonderful to have here there!  She is such a blessing to so many people and her testimony even during this trial was an example of complete trust in a sovereign and loving God.

 

During the same time that we were running back and forth to the hospital, we were also having new carpet installed in our own home.  That meant that EVERYTHING had to be moved out of the bedrooms and living room.  EVERYTHING.  Thankfully, Marc had the week off for Thanksgiving break, so he took care of everything for me.  (Oh yeah - Mom spent Thanksgiving in the rehab hospital.  Yuck.)  When we moved our furniture back into the house we also switched rooms with the girls.  They now share the big master bedroom and we have one of the smaller rooms.  We all love the new arrangement.

Also leading up to Christmas, we had our first big snowfall.  The temps dropped below 0 for a couple of days and Marc still rode his bike to work!  He makes such sacrifices for our family.

Although we missed Susie's annual cookie day, we still had our traditional peppermint bark  mess party at home.

The girls (minus Valerie) participated in our church's Christmas program as beautiful angels.  Valerie was more of a fallen angel who refused to get up on stage this year because (in her words) she is "too embarrassing."  True dat.

 

Valerie was more than happy to participate in our homeschool Christmas party, though.  All of the kids made cards and brought goodies to share with some of the elderly people from our church.  After lunch, we delivered the goodie bags and sang some carols.

 

We even made a stop at Grandpa and Grandma Obenchain's house!

Our family Christmas celebration was held at Mom and Dad's house a little early in December.  Mom got a good home-cooked turkey meal to make up for the Thanksgiving feast that she had missed in November.  We all just exchange stocking gifts this time because the REAL Christmas gift was yet to come ....

Fall Fun

I keep hoping that one of these days I'll be caught up on everything and have time to sit down and blog about life again...but it's just not happening.  So - here's another photo recap of the last several weeks...pumpkin patch and petting zoo, carving jack-o-lanterns, and our family Halloween party.  We decided to try a new tradition on Halloween.  Rather than going out for trick-or-treating, we bought the girls plenty of their favorite candy, rented some movies and set up a grand slumber party in the living room.  Valerie has been terrified of anything related to witches, goblins, skeletons, monsters, etc. lately so this was the way to go.  Pumpkins and spiders!  The girls dressed in simple costumes and enjoyed handing out candy to people who came to our door.