It started out just like any other normal day… other than the fact that Scott had to go into work on a Sunday… which meant that I had to go to church alone. Well… not alone EXACTLY. Scott dropped Tyler off at church early for the youths’ GO STUDENT MINISTRIES “hang out” that was taking place before church. Then I took the baby with me, and Scott took Sidney to work with him. So when I left church, I actually had Tyler and Peyton with me. So I took Tyler and Peyton to eat lunch at Jim and Nicks! WHEW… finally the day calmed down. Okay… so maybe the day didn’t start out so normal after all. But what is normal anyway?
After lunch I went home and put the baby down for a nap and began preparing for a portrait session that I had scheduled. I absolutely love shooting little Miss Brooklyn’s pictures. She is too cute. You can see her portrait session here.
So the rest of the day was supposed to be dedicated to decorating our Christmas tree, and we got to meet Justin’s new girlfriend Paige! By the way we think she is absolutely adorable! So after several hours of tree decorating, and Christmas carols, we ended up with the most fabulous tree ever! We’ve never had a Grand Fir before. This is quite possibly the most beautiful tree we’ve ever had in the thirteen Christmas holidays that Scott and I have been together. Of course Whitley was absent from our festivities (as usual) and Justin spent most of the time we were decorating “picking up Paige”, but Scott, Sidney, Peyton, Tyler and I had fun! We are such a goofy family!
After we finished decorating the tree and cleaning up our mess, Justin walked in with his new girlfriend Paige. We couldn’t decide how we should greet her because Justin told us that she was extremely shy. So we had to decide quickly whether to be nice or to just attack her and give her a big bear hug while throwing her over our shoulder and telling her to go clean the bathroom or something! We decided to be nice. We regret that decision now though because our bathroom really could use a scrubbing! But we did save her and Justin an ornament to put on the tree!
And here is the final result of the tree. Isn’t it pretty? I love our tree this year. Grand firs are so pretty, and the branches can actually support some of our heavier ornaments.
But here is where things get interesting:
After Justin and Paige added their ornaments to the tree (now thinking this is their fault), we were all hanging out and admiring the beautiful fir. Luckily everyone was sitting on the couch because all of a sudden the tree came crashing down into the middle of the floor just like in the movie Christmas Vacation. The only thing missing at our house was the squirrel in the tree!
We had to laugh to keep from crying! Scott’s mom has always sent us all a fabulous Christmas ornament every year with our gifts. She said that sometimes she spent more on the ornaments than she did the presents themselves. We’re talking some fabulous department store ornaments. And we lost many of them in the crash! These ornaments will never be able to be replaced. Each ornament has been packed in its own box to carefully protect it during storage for eleven months out of the year, and all of a sudden… THEY ARE GONE! SHATTERED! NEVER TO BE SEEN AGAIN! These were very special to us, and now I must stop because I’m tearing up again! (Trying to think of something funny to say but coming up short here)!! A huge lesson was learned here! Just because you put your tree in the corner, does not mean that you can get away without decorating the back of it. Apparently our ornaments were so heavy that it made the tree front heavy… so TTIIIMMBBEERRRRRRRRR!
So after cleaning up the mess, we all took a break from the tree and had dinner at Pizza Hut. By the way… Paige eats like a bird! But did I mention how cute she is? Peyton took to her immediately and found herself a new best friend. All night long Peyton kept saying, “PAIGE… yada yada.” “Paige… yada yada.” SHE LOVES PAIGE! But the most exciting moment was when Peyton yelled out in the middle of Pizza Hut, “Paige!… I pooted!” Yes, that’s my daughter! Thank God she’s so cute! Because I couldn’t handle bad and ugly! But I’m glad Paige is fond of Peyton. But more importantly… she seems to be pretty fond of Justin as well.
After dinner at Pizza Hut, we stopped by the grocery store for some milk because I was thinking COOKIES! I thought I’d let Justin and Paige do the baking, just to kind of ease the tension that she had to have been feeling after meeting Justin’s crazy family for the first time. I mean… she walks in and Scott is wearing a blinking Rudolf nose for crying out loud… not to mention we may have let a bad word or two slip when the tree crashed into the floor. So I’m sure she thinks we are absolutely ridiculous. I actually thought I was rescuing her when I handed her and Justin the cookie sheet and cookie dough. But I think she got embarrassed even more. SORRY PAIGE… LOL!
It was a pretty long day. But looking back, I’m thankful for all the wonderful memories we made together. I have the greatest family ever! After things calmed down, and Justin left to take Paige home, Peyton started reminding us of how her attitude becomes when she is up past her bedtime. So we decided to let her top off the tree with our angel (all the while praying that it would not crash again). So Scott lifted her high into the air, and she plopped that angel right onto that tree like she knew what she was doing!
Tree decorated – CHECK
Met Justin’s new girlfriend – CHECK
Tree crashed into the floor – CHECK
Cleaned up tree crash mess – CHECK
Ate dinner – CHECK
Baked cookies – CHECK
Put baby to bed – CHECK
Now just a few shots of some of our ornaments that survived the crash! Merry Christmas everyone! And please remember not to go crazy this year. There is no need to get worked up over presents, money, traveling, etc. I pray that everyone remembers to pause long enough to focus on the true meaning of Christmas… JESUS!
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