Christmas Day

The cousins

Christmas morning at my parents

Brayden playing in his new tent!

Peyton in her Christmas pajamas

Brayden thinking "will she hurry up these pictures so I can open up some presents"

Our Christmas eve ended well as we got the house ready for the morning. We went to bed excited for the next day. In the meantime, I realized that I pulled my back out(yet again) a few days before and it was pretty sore. I woke up around 2am to excruciating pain in my back. I couldn't move and needed to use the bathroom. I had to wake up Travis and have him help me get out of bed and still it took 20 minutes to walk to the bathroom (which happens to be about 5 feet away, seriously). I tried to take a hot bath, take ibuprofen, ect... and no relief. I finally fell asleep because I was so tired. We woke up Christmas morning and I tried my best to be excited for the kids. We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus with cinnamon rolls, we opened our stockings, and then opened our presents. It was a nice and relaxing morning. Peyton loved playing with the paper and Brayden loved everything he got. I think his favorite was his tent, and Peyton's was her gold bracelet (a Puerto Rican tradition). Travis and I realized later that we forgot to read the Christmas story in the Bible (which we've done every year), but I think we were both so tired from the night before, we just forgot. Then we got ready and went to my parents house for an amazing brunch! I'm telling you, this is probably one of my favorite meals of the year. Ham, homemade bread, cinnamon roll pull-aparts, bacon, strawberry french toast, quiche, and of course an assortment of yummy desserts. We opened presents with the family and had such a nice day over there. We are all so blessed and Christmas is always a good reminder of that. We finished off the night in the ER because of my back. Nothing too exciting, just some muscle relaxers and pain medicine, but it really helped. At one point Travis and I looked at each other sitting there in the ER and smiled as we said "Merry Christmas." The funny thing is, even with the ER visit, it still was a great Christmas. Peyton and Brayden had a lot of fun on Jesus' birthday. We finished off the week with a visit with Travis' extended family down in Longview and a trip out to the cabin on Saturday with my extended family. Needless to say we were tired after our Christmas week, but reminded how much God loves us. Isn't that the point...