Christmas with the Hendricksons

Before Wade & I ever had kids, we decided that we would make it a priority for our kids to always wake up at our house on Christmas morning. That was, and still is, important to us. However, that makes juggling all of our travel plans a little bit tricky. Fortunately, our parents are gracious and understanding of the fact that we are building memories with our little family. :)

This year, we had planned to go to Houston to see my Mom, Dad, sister, brother-in-law, and nephews from December 22nd-December 24th. We knew that we had to be back in time for our church's Christmas Eve service.

Unfortunately, I was feeling a little sniffily the morning that we left town, and I got progressively worse throughout that day and the following day. By Friday night Wade and I were both feeling awful. I felt terrible leaving my parents' house early - like we had jipped them out of a day. The boys were super sad to leave early, too. They begged to get to stay with Gran & Papa D another day. But... we were both miserable. We packed up our stuff and left Houston at 8:30 on Thursday night. The boys slept in the car and transitioned well to their beds at 1:30 when we got home. When we woke up on Christmas Eve morning, Wade and I took turns going to our doctor's office. Yes, going to the doctor on Christmas Eve was every bit as awesome as it sounds. :( Thankfully, they were open and able to get us both in. We both had sinus infections and I had an ear infection.

My sweet Mama had gone to a lot of trouble this year to make Christmas nice for us. I know that she was disappointed that we had to cut our visit short, but she hid it well. She kept saying that she just wanted us to get better in time for Christmas. Bless her heart for taking pity on us...

As soon as we got to my parents' we had a Happy Birthday Jesus party - complete with a symbolic cake, special plates and napkins, candles, and singing. During the party, some kids came to the door to sing carols to us. What timing! They sang a few songs and we donated to their cause - World Vision. It made for a very fun party for Jesus!

My parents went overboard with gifts, as usual. They were very good to us! They gave Owen his first ever Christmas present, so that was pretty special.

Drew was crazy about my Mom this trip. He wanted to be in her lap or right next to her the whole time. It was pretty cute. :)

My mom had put out a picture that she found of my Dad visiting Santa back in 1953. I thought it was so precious! My Dad was 5 years old when that picture was made. Such a neat piece of his history!

Thanks, Mom & Dad, for all that you did! I'm so sorry that we had to leave early. Thank you for being so understanding and willingness to go with the flow. We love you!