Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas everyone. The Lewis' had a wonderful time visiting family in Houston. It was so wonderful to get to go back again this year, and we really soaked up holiday time with Justin. It was kind of sad knowing that next year he would not be with us for Christmas. We flew in to Houston on the 23rd and my dad picked us up at the airport. We headed out to Katy and hung out at the house until my mom got home from work. Then it was off to Tex-Mex food for dinner. Oh how we miss our Tex-Mex here in Arizona. We have to go get some margaritas, queso, and fajitas every time we come back to Texas. That was the last time Justin will eat Mexican food (at least good Mexican food) for a very long time.

Christmas Eve was a little different this year than normal. Jordan had to work on Christmas Day, so we opened presents from her and my parents on the eve. The girls really raked in the loot from them. Our baby girls sure are spoiled. This year was so much fun with the girls, because it was our first Christmas with Addison, and Raegan was really in to the season more than ever. She was so excited about Santa. We made cookies with Mimi to put out for him. I think she was a tad bit confused, though, because she also thought Santa brought her cookies along with the toys he brought. She also understands about it being baby Jesus' birthday. I hope in the next few years she can really grasp the true meaning and story of Christmas. After we took some pictures and opened presents, we had our traditional Christmas Eve meal. It consists of the best filet steaks with Bernaise sauce, garlic mashed potatoes, bread, asparagus, wine (of course) and some decadent dessert (baked fudge this year, yummo!) This has been our Christmas Eve dinner for years, ever since the infamous KFC Christmas Eve dinner. We wouldn't change a thing about it. We have been fortunate enough to have my brother's girlfriend, Danielle join us for the past 2 years and hope this becomes a tradition as well. After dinner, it was off to bed for the girls to prepare for Santa's arrival.


(Making cookies for Santa with Mimi and Jordy).

Our Family of 4 on Christmas Eve. (And all of those presents were before Santa came.)

My sweet girls ready for Santa. How cute are they?

The whole family.

Bailey and Danielle.

Raegan is a pro at this opening presents thing.

Addison's 1st Christmas. Her first Cabbage Patch doll.

Christmas morning we woke up and saw that Santa had visited. We opened up Santa presents, scoped out the goodies in our stockings, and exchanged presents within our immediate family. Justin got me a Coach purse, yay, he's so good to me. There was a little casualty during all of the excitement. Raegan was trying to get Justin to open his stocking, and she pulled a little too hard on it, and the stocking holder fell off and hit her right under the eye. She now has a nice shiner from the experience. She cried for a couple of minutes and then shook it off to continue opening presents. After the chaos was through, we ate some breakfast and got cleaned up to head to my uncle's house for Christmas with my extended side of the family. We really enjoyed getting to see everyone and had a lovely meal. Of course, my grandfather went above and beyond on presents for the girls again, and Raegan received more games for her VTech MobiGo from my uncle. We got her the Mobigo for her birthday and she LOVES it. I LOVE it as well. It keeps her occupied forever and I can get some work done. It's also educational, another plus.

Sunday was spent in Spring with Justin's side of the family. Both of his grandparents were there (a very rare occasion) along with many aunts, uncles, and cousins. Justin's has two little girl cousins that are 4 and 5, and Raegan had so much fun playing with them. They are the only family she has that are near her age, and this is the first chance she has had to play with them. Hopefully she will get the opportunity to hang out with them more once we move back to Texas. Justin was really excited that he got to see so much of his family for Christmas. It was a sad goodbye when we left his Aunt's house, knowing that would be the last time he would see them for a very long time.

The rest of our trip was pretty much devoted to house hunting. We spent most of Monday looking at houses, and Tuesday was a long grueling day of negotiating with a builder on a new home in a new subdivision of Katy called Katy Creek Ranch. This was not my favorite part. The whole negotiation situation really makes me uneasy, so I left that part up to Justin. It took hours, and finally at the end of the day, we signed the contracts and wrote out our earnest money check. We should close on the house by January 27th. I don't enjoy the whole experience of having to go out looking for a new house and dealing with builders/home-owners, but I must say I LOVE the house. It is so perfect. I really think I'm going to be extremely sad leaving it when Justin comes home and we move on to our next assignment. At the same time, it is bittersweet knowing he will never live in the house with us. It's also a very strange feeling.

Needless to say, our whole trip was jam packed with things to do. Some were fun, some were necessary, but all in all, it was very successful. We are grateful to be home, though, and just enjoy some time to relax, and spend as a family before we start packing up the house and making our next move.