Christmas

Well Christmas has come and gone for another year and in reality I am very happy about that! While it was fun I can really only handle so much of this season.

The Sunday before Christmas we had the Bracken Christmas party it was fun but of course like all years before I was on call and had the fear of being called out just as Santa arrived and I'm happy to announce that once again I lucked out and had no calls!! The night before the party I decided to buy the kids a new out fit to wear so since I was working I grabbed Craig (My partner for the night) and off to Wal-Mart we went. He is such a trooper and with his help we found the kids some cute cloths. I even had Maddie wear a dress she has only really wore one other dress and that was for her Blessing almost 3 years a go. She LOVED it and knew she was the cutest little girl in the room! Well time for Santa arrived and all I can really say about that was it was an adventure while most of the kids where fine and and actually happy to see him we did have a little incident with Ozzy (My nephew). Well Oz has always been a little nervous of Santa but for some reason this year he has been terrified in fact from what they tell me he has said that he doesn't need or even want anything from Santa he will be happy with the stuff he gets from his family. When Santa came through the door Oz was on the move right to his daddy's arms crying. Sant went through the routine of calling all the kids one by one so they could sit on his lap and give them each a gift and here's poor Oz on his turn Need I say more?

The following day we had had a get together with Dees family, well Dee and the kids did! I ended up waking up in the middle of the night VERY sick it was terrible. I stayed home most of the day and tried to sleep it off. I did join the family later in the afternoon for a little while but I was just not feeling good at all so ended up leaving after the gifts where opened. It was nice to spend some time with that side of the family since I always seem to work the days that they go visit!

On to Christmas Eve. We had the annual Christmas eve Chile dinner at moms house along with stupid present opening. Santa came to visit the kids that night as well and of course since I had not let the kids have a nap Maddie refused to sit on his lap but she did tell him that she wanted a "Baby" for Christmas. Mom always makes the kids a new pair of Jammie's for Christmas which they open on Christmas Eve and they are always happy to wear them .

Christmas morning started at 730 the kids where excited with all the gifts. Brady has been telling me since fall that he needs hiking boots and hiking socks so when we sat down to write his letter to Santa they where at the top of the list so he was very happy to get them Christmas morning. Maddie was happy with her "Big Girl" Dora bike but the hit of the morning was their truck . While I know we did go a little over board this year it was worth it to see their faces that morning. We made a quick trip back to my moms house that morning so the kids could open the rest of their gifts. We finally returned home early in the afternoon and just spent the rest of the day relaxing and letting the kids play with all of their goodies!

So that was the Gillins Christmas! We hope you all had an enjoyable one as well!