after Christmas...

Christmas day flew by.  It is nice to be able to look back and reflect on all the fun that we had with my family on Christmas day and look forward to the Christmas celebration with Chris' family on Saturday.

This year the four of us spent Christmas Eve together.  Chris made dinner and then we piled in the car, with the dog, and drove around looking at Christmas lights.  After a stop at Starbucks, of course.  We have some crazy "Clark Griswold" type decorators nearby and the kids loved checking out all of the wildly decorated houses.  After Christmas lights we came back home and camped out on the couch to watch a Christmas movie.

The next morning was lovely and quiet.  I guess you know your kids are getting older when they don't wake up until after 7:30.  Very different from those years when they woke us up around 5:30 a.m. and we had to tell them it was not time to get up yet.

The kids loved giving their gifts to each other.  Of course, they loved getting gifts too.  I think the favorites this year were Ashlyn's new bedspread and the tent for her American Girl and Landon's slot car racetrack and hockey foosball table.

Chris kept the Johnson Christmas breakfast tradition alive while the kids tried out their new toys.


Dominic invited us all to spend Christmas day at his home in Santa Cruz.  We had a great day filled with family, friends and food...


(Alicia, Dominic and Jeff)

The kids entertained themselves by sliding down the stairs in one of Dominic's sleeping bags.

Dominic helped them out a bit...

There was also some wrestling...

or "girl-slapping" in Landon's case.

The boys did some cooking while we all crowded around and talked and laughed...




Dominic explaining to Landon how to do skating tricks with a finger board


playing corn-hole...


and throwing cornbags at each other



A great day was had by all...







Now we are enjoying some quiet days at home with our family and in all honesty, keeping the kids from killing each other.  School breaks are great for sleeping in and laying low but close quarters often leads to endless fighting.  Wait, are my kids the only ones???  hahaha

Ahhh, the good times...


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Christmas day also marked the seventh year since my last seizure.  I have no problem talking about it and I remember it every year...with thankfulness for how far God has brought me.  However, I know that God doesn't want me to continue to be consumed by the past.  He wants me to live the life that He has for me.  You can read more about my seizure anniversary here and here and here.

I'm off to live this blessed life...