Christmas at Grandma's

On New Year's day we celebrated Christmas with Doug's family.  Yes we traveled to IN.  I am so tired of traveling.  We do not plan on traveling again for 2-3 months.  If you want to see us you are going to have to come to us!!!!  The kids are so out of sorts today.   I am so looking forward to the return of the routine next week.  My kids do so much better with our routine!!!  We had a great time at Grandma's.  Most of the family was there and it was great to see everyone.  Although we visit Grandma often we do not always get to see the rest of the family, so it is fun to see everyone.  Elijah is so funny, he still can not remember all of the grandkids names(he is grandkid #9 and Sarah is #10).  Tim and Roxanne got a call right before our get together that Roxanne's mother had a heart attack and was not doing well, so they dropped a few things off and headed to Florida to be with her.  We got a call during our get together that she had passed away.  They had just left Florida 2 days before, so Roxanne has those precious memories.  Please be in prayer for this family during this very hard time.  Tim and Roxanne did not make the 16 hour trip prior to her passing, so Roxanne was not there when she passed, but she knew she probably would not make it.  In so many ways, this is really better.  I was in the room when my father passed away and as much as I wanted to be with him until the end, I have horrible memories of the last few minutes and then the time afterwards.  I would have rather had the good memories and not the last minute to remember.  Holidays always are harder after the loss of a loved one, but I can not imagine losing someone during the holidays.   Back to our get together, it was a great time.  Tim's daughter Madison also did not make it.  We rarely get to see her, so we really missed her too.  Everyone else was there.  We had lunch first, much to Elijah's dismay.  He wanted to open gifts first, so it was hard to get him to eat.  After lunch we opened gifts and then visited.  We also watched Elizabeth's movie "Horton Hears a Who".  Elijah loved it so much we ended up getting him one on Friday and he watched it all of the way home today!  We all really enjoyed our gifts and the family time.  I feel like I have gained a ton over this Christmas season.  As of last week, I have lost every week, I am so praying that I have lost this week too!  I am back on my healthy eating plan and have already exercised since we got home.  I need to figure out how much I have lost so far it is somewhere between 35-40 pounds.  I am feeling so much better.  I still have a ton to go, but I am doing it pound by pound!!  Here are a few pictures of the fun!!!