Merry Christmas everyone!  Boy it has snowed for over a week straight - and we've had well over a foot at our house.  Christmas Eve we did venture out to a church just down the street and had a really nice service.  Cody and Casey both behaved pretty well.  It was beautifully decorated and we were glad to at least be out of our house and doing something "Christmassey."  Then on Christmas day, another blizzard knocked on our door and we literally couldn't get our car down our own street!  It was a let-down as we had invitations to some fun Christmas day gatherings.  But we hunkered down, just the four of us.  It was a quiet day - both boys went quite stir crazy after being home bound for much of the last week.  Casey, as you can see, is ALL about Elmo right now.  We got the boys "Elmo Live" which is a super fantastic, animatron Elmo who does tons of things.  Elmo sings, dances, sits, sneezes....it's pretty crazy the technology.  Casey LOVED it.  Cody didn't even look at it.  I was bummed because I really thought Cody would take to it.  But we will make it a toy in his ABA program and we'll teach him how to play with it - in hopes it might light a spark. 

Today we were invited to our Pastors house and come heck or high water, we were going!  I think we all would have gone nutso if we were stuck in that house one more day!  There were cars getting stuck in front of our house - which made me nervous.  But my positive, "go get 'em" husband won me over and we piled in the car and left for the Case's!  Once there, Casey made a bee-line for his favorite person, Pastor Robert!

Then he made a bee-line for their Christmas tree ... 

and luckily was very respectful and only pointed to the ornaments!

Cody did pretty well - we kind of have to chase him around a lot but hey - at least we get to be with a group of friends we love while we do it!  Cody LOVED the little lights wrapped around the banister and especially because Kim wrapped bells within the lights.  He'd walk past and jingle the bells whenever he could.  That's his beloved vibrating elephant toy in his mouth.

We read the Christmas story out loud - we ate great food - we laughed up a storm.  It was a great night.  As usual, we had our painful moments - as we always do every holiday.  Don reminisced about how as a little boy, he couldn't WAIT for Christmas morning and could never even sleep Christmas Eve anticipating what would be under the tree!  He then said, "Cody will never be able to experience that...that is so sad.  He probably will never get what Christmas is all about."  Casey, of course, will definitely "get" Christmas and we are grateful that through him, we will be able to enjoy all the Christmas traditions.  As for Cody, we have to settle knowing that given his disease, instead of looking at what we "don't" get to experience with him, we remind ourselves that we DO get to experience HIM because he is one of the lucky kids who is living with mitochondrial disease.  It is such a serious, even fatal illness.  We exchange our sorrow for gratitude that we have him, and he has us, and that is more than enough. 

So our hearts are filled to overflowing with wonderful Christmas cards, the love of friends and family, and two little boys who make everyday Christmas for us.  Of course, none of it would matter without the One who came to earth as a Christmas baby and became the Savior of the world.  He makes all things possible - and He makes a way even in the wilderness for us.   

We hope this snow ends and we can get back to normal life soon (well, as normal as it gets around here!)  We send our love and gratitude for those who have checked into this website in 2008.  What a blessing you are to us!

with love, Shawna