Not exactly the Christmas we expected....

Hello friends.  It has been a few weeks since I have blogged (thank goodness for scheduled posts, right?).  As much as I tried to not let the Holidays get the most of me and focus on the true meaning of Christmas, the entire season grabs a hold of you and you can't let go!  We had so many fun plans - Holiday parties, Programs, the North Pole Flyer, the Elf Quote-a-long, Sissy's PJ Exchange...all so much fun!  

And then we received sad news a few days before Christmas.  Matt's beloved Grandma ~ Grandma Darling ~ passed away.  There was no hesitation - we loaded up the car immediately and headed to Illinois.  The kids were resilient - no hesitation - and they survived a 15 hour drive through the night to arrive there by 5 am.  

It was a bittersweet Christmas - great to be around family but sad to be there for that occasion.  Grandma Darling was an amazing woman - with so many who loved her.  We had a wonderful memorial service for her and I was very glad we were able to be there.  We were so very blessed by God to have her in our lives as long as we did.

Of course we had the question form the kids...."Will Santa still come to Illinois?"  And after my kids' crazy requests in their letters and the even crazier conversation they had with Santa, I received many questions as to what Sissy did get from Santa.

Both expecting what they asked for, Brody even wrote this letter and snuck it next to the cookies before he headed to bed Christmas Eve......

 The next morning, Santa was very good to my kids, leaving them a XBox 360 with Kinect and 3 games!!! WOW!!  He left little Bubba a fun Chuggington train set.  Brody was so excited, he didn't even ask about the go-cart.

Sis took a minute - had a hard time realizing that Santa didn't bring her an iPad - she rallied and didn't say much about it all morning.

Later that morning, we found 2 last presents to give to the kids.....

Brody was puzzled as to what was in the box but Sissy saw the picture right away and knew what it meant....

 He looked at the picture of the go-cart and then looked at me and said, "Well, I didn't want a picture of it!!"

"Honey, the real thing is at home in the garage."

"YES!!!!!!"  My boy was on cloud nine - Is it bad that I am happy that Mom & Dad put him them, and not Santa?

 Sissy, seeing where this was going, tore into her present as quickly as possible. I think she was expecting a picture of an iPad.....

 Though she never said that and was THRILLED to received money from her mom & dad to help her buy an iPad.

 She quickly grabbed some wrapping paper to add up how much she has saved already.  With her little entrepreneurial spirit, she has almost enough - she sold some old DS games and American Girl stuff, took care of our neighbors dog, and received more $$ for Christmas presents.  She has a few dog walking jobs lined up over the next week that will hopefully take her to the top to EARN her own iPad - the ONLY way she was going to get one.

We faced a long drive home and Brody was so patient, as he had to wait 15 hours to charge the dang thing.  But he finally got out on his go-cart. Have you ever seen him smile so much??

One day Bubba- one day.

Linking up with my girls - Shawn & IA for Talk To Us Tuesday!  Link your post up - there's no rules and no work!!