Christmas 2012

Happiness and love filled my heart this Christmas.

At church I was reminded of how awesome God is to us. As service started that night, I got goosebumps. When some children ran up on the stage with their lights singing of Christmas, I got a little teary eyed. After the service I attended was over, I got Cooper and took him to see the beginning of the service. His eyes got big, he pointed out daddy on stage, and said "oh, wow!" a lot. When we left, Cooper said, "That was really great!" The service was awesome - from the pre-show, to the worship, to the speaking. How we have ended up at NewPointe I'll never really quite know, but I am so thankful that we are. Our family has been so blessed to be a part of the team at NewPointe. The friends we have made through the church are awesome. Ohio is becoming more like home to us, and a large part of that is due to the amazing people at NewPointe. 

When we got home we skyped with family, ate some dinner, and put Cooper to bed. As we watched A Christmas Story we went to work as Santa. It took much longer than anticipated to build a tool bench and scooter! 

Cooper wanted to leave the mild and cookies under the tree. We compromised with them on a chair next to the tree.

I was the first one up Christmas morning. I laid in bed for about 45 minutes trying to fall back asleep, when I decided to just go ahead and get up, turn the lights on, and make some coffee. I'm pretty sure Cooper heard me go down stairs because I hadn't even gotten the tree lights on before I heard him. We kept him upstairs until I had my camera ready to capture his reaction. I think he thought he was actually going to see Santa. He didn't quite understand that it was a fly by while he slept. 

Andrew and I sat with Cooper as he opened all his gifts and tried to convince him that it was best to wait until everything was opened before we played with his new toys. He ripped right through the paper, and got excited with everything he opened! My favorite moments were when Andrew and I would catch each other's eye and hold it there for a moment. Those moments said, "Look at how excited he is. He's funny. He's cute. He loves his gift.  and He is growing up" all at once. I can't believe it's already our 3rd Christmas with him. I also can't believe that one day I'll be saying I can't believe it's our 3rd Christmas with out him. Cause one day he will walk out of our home to a life of his own and make these same memories with his own family. And I hope he looks at his wife and relishes in the excitement of his children the way we did this year. It was a great Christmas - full of magic and great memories!

Apparently I was wrong in thinking he wouldn't have much to open Christmas morning. Look at his pile!

The rest of the day was spent in the kitchen or cleaning. I made waffles for breakfast, heated up some leftover soup for lunch, and we had a steak dinner with our friends Sarah and Bronson. Thanks to Mr. Sale's ocd, he was in clean and organize mode about 5 minutes after we had opened our gifts. Which translated to complete organization of our downstairs by the afternoon. And Cooper played so contentedly with his new stuff for the rest of the day...and every day since. 

Our blue birthday cake to Jesus.