A Christmas Miracle...

It finally happened. And it happened on Christmas Eve. It was nothing short of a miracle. Our baby girls finally slept through the night. I'm not even talkin' "6-hour" sleeping through the night. It was a whopping 8-hour stretch! I couldn't believe it!

Of course, I woke up at 4am and was so excited that I didn't really sleep until after I fed them at 7am. Andy woke up around 6am and said, "Have you fed them yet?" And I said, "No! It's a Christmas miracle."

And the best part is, they've kept it up. For the most part. Sometimes it's 5 1/2 hours, sometimes 7. They haven't done 8 hours again, yet. But, it's all progress.

Sleeping through the night was just one of many highlights this Christmas. I'll try to be brief, but there's so much to share...

The Christmas Sickies

Christmas Eve morning, Andy's dad called to tell us that Debbie (Andy's mom) had been up all night with the flu. She had gotten it from Sophie (our niece), who got it from her mommy (Shannon, Andy's sister). He wasn't sure we would want to come to the house for the evening, for fear that we might catch the traveling viruses.


We didn't want to miss Christmas with the Keller's, so we went, hoping that the contagious part was gone. It was a lot of fun. We enjoyed our traditional feast with crab legs and all the trimmings. We openned a ton of gifts and enjoyed Christmas with kids in the picture (Sophie, Jillian and Lauren).

That night Jason (bro-in-law) went home and got sick. On Christmas night, Andy and I both awoke with the dreaded Christmas Sickies. We were fortunate that we were able to enjoy Christmas Eve and Christmas Day before it arrived. But, it was wretched... I'll spare you the details.

The best part is that neither of our girls caught the bug. Although there is a laundry list of others in Shannon and Jason's family who caught it. We're just glad it's over.

The Christmas Broom

Christmas Day was spent at my parent's house, with my brother (Ryan) and Shannon (wife) and our nephew, Jake. We started with a great big breakfast and then got buried in a pile of gifts for our precious babies (and us, too, of course). It was so fun to open each other's gifts and especially watch Jake (age 3), who insisted that after every person openned one that it was once again his turn.

For dinner, mom made beef tenderloin and in its preparation, we met the Christmas Broom. Although the meal is delicious, the butter that topped the dish became extremely smokey. As mom openned the oven, smoke poured out and set off the smoke alarm, as our girls and Jake were napping. No one woke up, but when it was time to open the oven again, Shannon was prepared with a broom to wave around the smoke alarm, to ensure that it didn't wake Jake.

Sheri DePuy (a friend who Ryan, Dad and I worked with at church) who joined us for dinner, helped by wafting the porch door as Shannon furiously waved the broom, while mom quickly openned the oven and I quickly shut it the oven behind her.

It was quite funny and I captured a few pictures to share. Enjoy.