Merry Christmas!!!!

Oh my goodness......where to begin!!!!

Our holiday celebration started this year on Christmas Eve with dinner and gifts at the Merten house. Unfortunately, this year it was just myself and Steve representing our little family. The girls were still with their respective dads. We had a yummy yummy dinner and presented Steve's family (Dad, Brother Jim, SIL Belinda, and nephews Trevor and Shay) with gifts. It was a very festive time. Although, it almost turned out disastrous..........while we were at the lake house, we found out that we had a water main leak in our FRONT YARD!!!! We felt terrible about calling the landlord on Christmas Eve, but come on........what were we supposed to do??? So we sat for a couple of hours wondering if we would have water standing in our yard when we got home.....luckily, they were able to resolve the problem and restore water service to our house before we ever got home..........whew - disaster averted!!!

On Christmas morning Steve and I were able to sleep in until about 10:30..........mmmmmm.......that was nice!!! But, we eventually started getting the inevitable "Merry Christmas" text messages from our friends and family that signaled that it was time to start the day. So, we got up, got showered and dressed and headed over to my parent's house - which, by the way, happens to be about 4 minutes from our own........NICE!!! My dad invited Steve out to play golf and my mom and myself were going to go out to the Greenville hospital to check on my grandmother. Since none of you actually know what's going on there here's the lowdown in a hurry........about 3 weeks ago my grandmother who lives a little North of Hillsboro, fell and broke her hip......she laid in her own house on the floor for about 18 hours before anyone thought to go check on her.......poor Grandma........but then was immediately (HA!) rushed to the nearest hospital where she was treated most urgently (to be read "it took another 11 hours!!!"). Fortunately, she was admitted and underwent surgery to repair her hip.....and was then transferred to the Greenville hospital so that she could be closer to us.......

So, back to where we were........Grandma is recovering nicely and should be released from the hospital on Tuesday, at which time she will be going to live with my sister until she's completely better and ready to be let out on her own.......lol. Steve and Dad played golf and had a great time, and after our visit at the hospital, mom and I started cooking for the family Christmas dinner. Everyone showed up about 6:00 and we enjoyed a WONDERFUL dinner of ham, mashed potatoes, and some yummy but still healthy veggies. Afterward, we had a gift exchange and proceeded to clean up the house......never fun!

By the time Steve and I returned home, we were exhausted........but we had no idea what exhaustion still awaited us!!!!

This morning we woke up at 7:00, showered and dressed, and headed out the door to make the 4 hour trip to Conroe to pick Kamri up from her Dad's house. Trip down there wasn't bad.....very little traffic and no DPS in sight. Made it down in 3 1/2 hours. Picked up our baby girl - SO SO happy to see her......and headed back home. The trip home wasn't nearly as fun.....we had to fight our way back through traffic and dodge DPS officers who were lurking in the distance, just waiting for a chance to pull someone over. But, we finally made it to the rendezvous point at which we were meeting Adam and Courtney in order to pick up Ryann and continue our trip back home.

So, here is where our story gets a little hectic.......but hopefully, the pictures will tell the story for me........the gist of it is that all of my family made a special trip to our house in order to be present when Ryann and Kamri opened all of their gifts and we had ANOTHER Christmas!!! I'm posting pictures from our Christmas tonight - and tomorrow you'll be able to see the rest! It'll take me until then to get them all posted.......but the girls had a wonderful Christmas, both with their dads and with us and we all feel overly blessed this year. Santa brought the girls a Fisher Price Loving Family dollhouse and Steve and I bought 4 rooms and the accompanying family members that go with the house.......HOURS OF FUN FOR ALL!!!! Cousin Emma is spending the night with Ryann and Kamri tonight and have just settled down for an hour of Dora the Explorer after playing "dollhouse" for a couple of hours!!! Mommy and Steve are really looking forward to bedtime tonight.......and not because we're hoping for some "alone time" either.....heehee.......we're both so exhausted we can barely keep our eyes open.....lol.

So, here's to all of our friends and family.......we hope you all had a wonderful and blessed Christmas this year, just as we did. We love you all and wish you a Very Merry Christmas!!!

Love,
Steve, Melony, Ryann & Kamri : )