Christmas Eve 2022

I woke up Christmas Eve morning with a deep sadness in my heart that led to a very sensitive spirit and an early meltdown before the day barely started. Nothing about Christmas felt right this year, except that David was here. 

The house was cold. Most of my decorations, especially all my nativity sets, were still in storage. My parents were far away, and Juan spent the day alone and would not be with us later that evening to open our gifts and stockings together. I missed him so much, and I just could not hold in my sadness or tears to be so far away from him. 

After a pretty big meltdown and a cleaning spree (that's what we do when emotions are high in our home), I settled down enough to talk through a plan for the day. We ended up turning on LakePointe's first candlelight service of the day and watching it online together. I'm sure it filled David with excitement, knowing he'll be back at LakePointe in person soon enough. For me, the tears flowed out again as I realized it may be a long time before I can be present to worship there again with him. I'll be honest with you, those three weeks back in Texas really messed with me and made me feel like I took several steps backwards in this journey. Three weeks was too long and too soon. But joining online felt good, especially knowing that it's still David's church home.

After watching the service, we went into town to get our traditional Papa John's pizza for Christmas Eve, despite it being early afternoon. It was the first we'd gone out since the big freeze just two nights before. Thankfully the temps got up into the high teens for Christmas Eve.

We came home, ate pizza, played a few card games, and then the Cowboys played the Eagles, so I took a nap. LOL. I got up from my nap around 6:00, just in time to see that the Cowboys won. After the Cowboys game, we ate cheesecake bites (David's favorite), drank Eggnog, and got a nice fire going so we could go to the living room to open our gifts. We had very few gifts to open because we'd already decided to gift each other spending money for another day this week that we'll be driving through a bigger city. We still had a nice evening together, and then we facetimed with Juan. :)

We got up early this morning on Christmas to attend the one service offered at our church today at 9:00. The auditorium was full, and even the Pastor said he was very surprised to see the turnout. He ended a series on the history of some of the Christmas songs we sing, today finishing with Joy to the World, the song published and sung the most out of any other song. I have really enjoyed the series and have a greater appreciation for the lyrics of many of the carols we sing. 

Here we are Christmas morning at one of the trees set up at church.

LakePointe's candlelight service online. 

Our Christmas Eve tradition--Papa John's pizza after church. 

Our very white Christmas this year

Jelly Bellies--the jelly beans Mike used to get me when we were dating. Snacking on them as I type. 

There's no Buc-ees here in Indiana, so we'll see how these caramel puffs compare to the beaver nuggets that we like so much. 

A hoodie that David got for Mike (and for himself). They really do like to match because they always buy everything the same. LOL. 

Boots enjoying his new toy. 

There's definitely not enough blankets around here for this cold!

I had more pictures, but they are not cooperating to load, so I may have to update later with more pics if I remember. We got cards with $ from my parents, Mike got me some thermal gloves for extreme polar temps, and David picked me out a whole set of fuzzy socks that I find myself using EVERY DAY here. I also got some little goodies that a friend here brought me back from South Africa earlier this month. A shopping day this week will determine what the rest of our gifts will be. :)

Now we are headed to spend Christmas with Matt and Chrissy, their boys, and her parents. Later this week we will head North to celebrate with the rest of Mike's family. I take comfort in knowing that my parents are having Christmas lunch with Juan, and that Juan will be with people all day. 

Everything feels different this year. I'm just glad we had a few traditions to hold onto while we start to make new ones here in Indiana.

Merry Christmas from our unfinished house to your hopefully finished one. :)