Christmas 2019

We had to get creative as to where to put the tree this year since we got new furniture pieces over the year that took the normal tree spaces. 

I can't believe the time has come for this precious boy's senior picture ornament to hang on my tree.

I was thankful to Juan for helping me at least get our cross lit up this year.

And even more thankful when I came home from work that last week before Christmas to find that Mike had gotten new lights to light up our nativity. I loved how they went together so well, the cross with the nativity, the gospel in one lit up display. 

Mike and I decided to commit to the Luke challenge this year, reading a chapter a day in the month of December in spiritual preparation for Christmas. I will have to say that it was a really neat experience, reading about the resurrection on Christmas Eve morning. 

This was a much tighter year financially due to job changes, but with two working sons, we still ended up with an abundance of gifts to exchange between the four of us. I loved the giving hearts of both of my sons toward each other and toward us. I also was quite amazed at Juan's still very obvious childlike anxiety over seeing so many gifts and wondering what he might be getting. This was still only his seventh Christmas with us, meaning only his seventh year to actually have gifts under the tree for him. A good reminder to me that although we need to start pushing more adulthood on him, we also need to appreciate and celebrate the child within him. He may not have gotten everything he asked for, but at least he felt seen and heard and loved. 

In keeping with tradition, we started Christmas Eve by attending the last candlelight service at church, side by side with my brother's family. (My parents couldn't attend because they both caught a pretty bad cold this year.)

And also in keeping with the Kloppmann side of tradition, we ordered pizza on the way home from the service before starting our gift exchange. Here are a few things we ended up with from each other:

A relaxation kit for me from Mike.

A steering wheel for Mike's truck from the boys.

An extra long phone charger for the boy who can't seem to disconnect from his phone.

A good old Texas t-shirt

Another fun shirt.

A voucher to go shopping later. Now he can choose between the clothes or the shoes that he wanted so we don't have to make that choice for him.

Juan's way of secretly coding the gifts by writing Mom in Hebrew. 

An oversized hoodie from Juan since I'm always cold. 

A tiny note from Juan tucked into a pencil sharpener, taped tightly in a cookie tin, wrapped inside a bunch of tissue paper, wrapped inside a taped up shoe box, placed nicely in a stapled gift bag. Lol.

A pretty nice (and expensive) gift from Juan to David.

A candle to make the house smell like cookies in the oven. 

A welcome-to-adulthood gift for Juan.

A blanket for Mike with his truck on it--with David in the driver's seat! This has been David's mode of transportation this semester while they have been working on David's pick-up for several months. 

More warm pajamas.

I had just told Mike that I needed a pan just a bit bigger than the one on the stove and just a bit smaller than the one in the cabinet. So now I have one just the right size. 

A new shirt for David, just his color to highlight his beautiful blue eyes. 

Juan confused about what could possibly be in this big box.

Even more confused by the Big Lots box (it didn't come from Big Lots.)

"Holy cow! It's a piano!"

I told him he'd be surprised, but still happy (after a long conversation the day before about not always getting exactly what you asked for--he's always wanted to learn how to play the piano, but we never had anything for him to play around with at home.)

A much-needed new watch/fitness tracker. 

The weighted vest that he randomly asked for to use while walking the dog.

A wireless mouse from David to help my classroom run more efficiently. 

A pic of the day he reunited with his sister at the Real Madrid stadium in Madrid. 

Pretty self-explanatory. 

Headphones so we don't have to listen to the beginning piano stages. 

Brother/sister pic

Christmas Day with my parents 

The crackling Christmas Day fire on a 70 degree day. 

Plus David got a laptop as a combination gift for Christmas/b-day/graduation, but we didn't get any pics of it. 

It was a quiet Christmas, but nice. We ended the day with a big Christmas dinner at home that we threw together and then played cards for several hours in the evening.