Christmas in review

As I sit and look back through pictures from our Christmas, it reminds me yet again how truly blessed we are and especially this year. It brings tears to my eyes to think of the hurt and loss we as a family went through back in May and the hurt we've shared with other families the past few months. For some reason, it all still seems so fresh, hence why I picked the current song on the playlist, "Always" by Building 429. I think I've hesitated blogging about Christmas b/c I just can't put into words how I feel. Shoot, I STILL have a blog that sits in the "draft" section from the few days following my dad's double lung transplant that I still to this day feel too vulnerable to actually write. It saddens me that not everyone can have the relationship with their family that I have with mine. I loved this past Christmas, moreso than the past few years. Yes, it was a pain to cart the girls home and all their stuff, but it is a Christmas I won't ever forget. We were given one of the greatest gifts ever for Christmas this year by getting to have my dad share it with us at home less than 3 months after having his transplant and after wondering in September if we'd even have him here with us for Christmas. I love that I got to cut up with my cousins, little sister, older brother, parents, grandparents, aunt and uncles. What more could someone ask for? There is never a dull moment when all our family is together b/c someone is always playing some prank, telling some joke or reminding each other just how blessed we are. Have I said that already? Ok, well I'll try to sum up the few days of Christmas and then, enjoy the pictures. We drove into Jensen Beach and got to Eric's dad's house where we spent our first few days enjoying the Florida weather. It was nice to be able to have down time and the girls were wanting so bad to go swimming. Giga, Eric's dad, decided he'd make the effort to get the girls each a wet suit to have upon arrival. Yea, well, unfortunately even a wetsuit wasn't going to keep them warm enough. They sure tried though. Oh well. Another time. On the 23rd, we headed down a little further to Fort Lauderdale to spend the next 48 hours with my family. As I've mentioned, this year Christmas was extra special and therefore we were wanting to soak it up and celebrate with my dad. The girls had a blast making Christmas cookies and a cake for Baby Jesus. Oh, and getting "sugared up" by G-Man. I am pretty sure one of the funniest things my husband has ever said to me came on Christmas Eve when we were deciding whether or not to let the girls stay with my parents or take them back to my aunt's with us. He came in where I was situating the girls stuff and said "Christy, we need to make a decision about what we're doing with the girls, b/c your dad is out there sugaring them up"! Oh the life of a grandparent! Needless to say, I think the cake had the opposite reaction with the girls, b/c they stayed with Aunt Kylie and had a sleepover but I had to wake Emily up to open presents on Christmas morning. Prior to Eric saying this to me though, we did Christmas Eve service with the family at church and again it was a service I won't soon forget. I was again thankful to be with not just my parents but my extended family... I love you Uncle Steve! After church, we all went over and had a dinner with family and friends we consider family. It was great to see everyone. Once back at the house, we did the birthday cake for Jesus and shuffled the girls off to bed, but not before they wrote their letter to Santa and left out the cookies. Santa even wrote back... "ho ho ho" :) or something like that :) HA! Santa and everyone was good to the girls with all their gifts, so thank you everyone! We made it back to Giga's house later Christmas Day and celebrated Christmas with him as well.

I was given Grandma Hornsby's love of pictures, so I've tried to limit the blog to only a few of the ton that were taken, but be sure to check out the link on the right for more.

People kept throwing things at us during our picture taking adventure. Then again, with the Hornsby girls, there can never be enough pictures so we kept taking them :) Christmas Eve before heading out to church.

Daddy helped Nichole write the letter to Santa. Emily was waiting her turn to sign it. What a ham! The family on Christmas afternoon with the "Operation Breath of Life" golf flag from Sheridan House. Sheridan House is a ministry our family has been a part of for many years and my dad usually gets us a flag with either our name on it or the girls names and this year was busy in the hospital so I took a turn and had one made for him as well. It was great to be able to surprise him with it.

We love being Daddy's girls! I think my girls are following right in my footsteps with their own Daddy:)

We played a little joke on the girls. Giga had some heel issue and so before we went to Ft Lauderdale, we told the girls Giga was going to the doctor and he was going to have his foot chopped off. Emily went around telling everyone and was convinced that they were just going to "throw away his foot or something" once it was cut off. So we had Giga welcome us with crutches when we got back to his house. It was comical. Here is a video clip of it.


Needless to say, we had a great Christmas!