Our Christmas

Our Christmas this year was amazing... Mark spent quite a bit of time with his Family, especially his Mom and Dad. I spent quite a bit of my Christmas with My side of the Family, which consists of my Dad, My step Mom Susie, and my amazing five brothers, Kaden, Austin, Tyler, Jacob and Joshua. I got up at 4:50 A.M. and headed over to my Dad's house. I was delighted to see the snow on the ground when I was going out to the truck that morning. I haven't had a 'white' Christmas for sometime. Tatum is in Arizona spending time with her Father, Ben, so this Christmas for Mark and I wasn't quite the same. We felt a huge void. However she had a great time with Her Dad and Santa was very generous to her! The woman in the picture above is my Amazing Mother-in-Law, Susan. Having her in mine, Mark and our Family's life has been our best gift yet! About 3 months ago we were informed that She had a cluster of brain tumors that would undoubtedly be fatal. The doctors at that time said that Susan had 6-12 weeks to live. The news then seemed grim. However She is still with us and is very healthy, active and beautiful. I know it is because of her undying faith in the gospel and a very loving Heavenly Father that she is able to still be with us. She hasn't had any treatment for the tumors either... She just had an MRI done and the news was astounding. Her tumors have shrunk. I am not sure how much but any amount is a blessing. This has been such a miracle. Our son Ethan was his usual chipper self on Christmas. Not really knowing how to completely unwrap gifts, he needed some of help. He was a delight to have this Christmas, our new little addition. It was good for him to be with family especially his cousins. He and his cousin Finnian (Fin) played together and Fin was trying to wrestle him and hug him. Fin is about 3 months older than Ethan and is about as long as Him. My Dad and Susie are the best. I enjoy their company so so much. I want to tell you all about my brothers' Christmas program. It was Christmas eve(sorry to back tack here) and they played little parts in it. Joshua was a Wise man, Tyler a marshmallow, Austin a twinkling light and Jacob was a Christmas caroler(I think, sorry I forgot!) And Kaden who is about thirteen wasn't in the program this year. I was happy to see Susie when I was walked into the full auditorium but something was very different about her! She got a hair cut! It was very cute and trendy. I also liked the program because they did a tribute to my Great Grandmother, Gert Ence who past away earlier in the year. She had been in charge of the Santa Clara Program for 30 something years, and always conducted it so well. She did it almost up until she passed. Her daughters, Connie, my grandmother, Venda and Claudia my Aunts have sort of taken over a bit to help out with it now. Anyways my Christmas was great! I miss my Girl but I knew her Dad deserved to be with Her and see her face when she saw what was under the Christmas tree that morning.