Christmas in Colorado (Friday, December 25th, 2015)

Steve and I had a quiet Christmas Eve by ourselves, as both of the girls spent the evening with the boy's families.  This is a first for us. Very strange in a way, and yet very rewarding as well, since our girls are both in such a good place.  

After a quiet candlelit dinner, Steve and I met up with our oldest daughter, son (in-law) and his family at their church for a very nice Christmas Eve candle light service.  Nothing puts me in the Christmas spirit more than Christmas Eve services and the reminder of what Christmas is really about.  After the service, we came back home and watched the news. The weatherman said we are going to have a white Christmas!

Our big Christmas celebration was at Steve's brother's house.  We opened all of the extended family presents together.  Our nephew and his girl friend were in town from New York, so the whole family was there.

There were gifts of every shape and size, and a few with a Star Wars theme.

Steve's brother modeling his new boxers

Uh Oh!  This looks dangerous! 

Most years for either Christmas or New Years, we have Cioppino, a tomato-based seafood stew as Steve's brothers house.  It is said to have been invented by San Francisco's Italian and Portuguese immigrant fishermen in the 19th century.   The traditional recipe changes depending on the catch of the day, which in the bay area was usually fish, shrimp, clams and mussels.  Since we all really like crab, ours always includes a nice helping of snow crab.

Final dinner preparations

Cioppino is a very messy meal, no matter how much care you try to take, so we three girls came prepared this year!  Earlier today, our next door neighbors brought us over an incredible Christmas bundle, which included (among other things) a leatherman for Steve, and these adorable aprons for us girls.  So we brought our super cute aprons with us to dinner!

When we finished with our extended family gifts, we were joined by a friend of the family and our nephew's girl friend's family for dinner. Such great people, we really enjoyed getting to know them.

Grandma's favorite place is right in the middle of the kids.  Nothing makes her happier!

And as always, the cleaning crew cheerfully jumped in and helped clear the table and load the dishes.  We are so proud of all of these kids.  

By the time we finished with all of the festivities at Steve's brother's house, it was around 9:00 and we still had not had time for our own family Christmas.  So we said our goodbyes and headed back to our house for the final Christmas celebration with just the six of us.

So many great gifts were exchanged this year, gifts from the heart that we will cherish forever.  

Steve's mom has spent years making a collection of everything funny that their grandkids have ever said.  And this year, they created a book, complete with pictures of the kids when they were little.  Here is a glimpse...

The whole family enjoyed looking at the book to see what was said, by what kid and when.  This book brought back many memories and created a great deal of laughter.  It is something we will all treasure for a lifetime.  

Our youngest daughter handmade gifts for all of the family.  Here is a sample of her beautiful work.

Our oldest daughter made us a table book of their wedding. We are so excited to share this with friends and family.

And our son (in-law) made a beautiful box for our daughter as he once again leaves for training.

Although the holidays can be a time of stress and strife (for so many reasons), they more importantly are a time to reflect, enjoy and look for the positive in all things.  We have been truly blessed and are thankful for everyone in our lives, whether we were able to spend Christmas with them or not.  We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a very blessed 2016!!!