So, after spending a couple of days at Jenna's folks' house, we headed down to Orange County to my brother's house on Christmas Eve after stopping off for Christmas Eve services at our old church, Rock Harbor. I was dreading the Christmas Morning early wake-up call, since Jenna and I were both fighting colds, and really needed sleep. Luckily the kids didn't wake everyone up until around 6:45, and we managed to sneak downstairs and join them without waking up Laina, so she got to sleep in. It was a fun day spent hanging out with family, staying in (rainy outside), and playing with all the new toys. Their living room is really a play room, so there was all kinds of fun stuff for Laina to do even if she hadn't gotten any presents (of which she got plenty).
Laina loved her cousin's new dollhouse (and luckily got a more age appropriate one from Grandma Hoskinson for Christmas) and spent a huge amount of time playing with her cousin Kaity (and wanting to ride in the little car they have, and go down the slide in the living room). She also found a connection with her cousin Conner in a love of fighter jets (my kind of girl... from dollhouses to fighter jets in no time flat).
Her cousin Kylie got to read her bedtime story, and I got to give her some drawing lessons (if you can call them that), along with playing endless games of Sorry, which she dominated consistently.
The morning after Christmas, we met up with a bunch of our old friends from our church small group. It just so happened that despite most of them living all over the country, we all were in town that day to meet for breakfast at Ruby's (mmm). It was awesome to see everyone again, like zero time had passed (despite the three munchkins in tow, and the two more on the way).
Then we headed back to the airport, and had a much less eventful flight back, actually arriving early. The only panicked moment was when we got to my car way out in the economy lot and realized I had left the dome light on, so the battery was dead. Luckily we had just been chatting with another couple with kids while walking to our car, and I was able to run and flag them down to give us a jump.. (whew).
The next morning was Saturday, so we had our own mini-Christmas at home, with a few presents to open. We had a "Christmas Story" style Christmas Dinner at a Chinese restaurant (the roast duck).
So, this year the Christmas week was a little more hectic than we'd like, but it was good nonetheless, and we had a great time getting out and seeing everyone. Laina loved all the attention for sure. Its really an amazing holiday, in that we're celebrating the fact that the very God who created everything and everyone actually took it upon himself to be born into our world as a helpless infant in a stable, and despite his omnipotent authority, revealed himself first to the lowest of the low in the culture (shepherds, then prostitutes, tax collectors, etc). Its really rediculous if you think about it. Its absurd to even suggest, if not for the fact that it actually happened. One of the things I love about the way God works is that he doesn't tend to do things the way anyone would expect. Of all the ways that a writer would conceive of God invading the earth, none of them would look anything like the events documented in the gospels. Probably more like Independence Day.
Anyway, Happy New Year!
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