Robert and I had our first Christmas together in 2000. It was the saddest Christmas; I had been diagnosed with Breast Cancer on Dec. 21 and besides that, Robert was really struggling with having Christmas without his children. I would often catch him with tears in his eyes as he would remember something Liz or one of the other kids would do on Christmas morning. It was really so sad. The other thing I remember vividly about that Christmas was that Alexander had had a Christmas Bazaar at school, I had given him about $20 to buy presents for everyone. I remember he got Robert (his brand new dad) a little, black, plastic watch. He got grandma a pretty pink rug for her bathroom, I got a candle and then the rest of the presents were for the baby. Baby? Yes, for the baby. Since mommy got married there must be a baby coming right? First, you get married, then you have a baby and then more babies. He got the babies lots of little presents. It was so sweet and it broke my heart too as I had just been diagnosed with cancer and was pretty sure our dreams of babies was gone. Well, that was our first Christmas.
The next year we bought the most beautiful, artificial tree at Sam's Club. A nine-footer, pre-lit, tall and gorgeous. Every year I have loved that tree. Every year Robert has dreaded lugging it up and putting it together because it was huge and heavy and difficult to put together - but he did it for me and I loved it. Well, this year we have a problem in our little house -- 7 feet ceilings! We were forced to buy another tree. Well, my superhero husband got up at 4am on Black Friday (or whatever they call the day after Thanksgiving) and stood in line at Sear's and got us this beautiful little tree for $100 - wow. It is a $300 tree too - we are so thrilled. The pictures are a little blurry, but you get the idea.
That is Alexander on the right, Max way in the back, he is the present handerouter, Rosie, riding her new horsey and that is Ethan (aged 5) peeking out on the left. Look at the loads of presents; we did have presents for 16 people though so it isn't really as disgusting as it looks!
Here you can see the grandkids better- that is Sade aged 8 (it is pronounced with a long "a") and Ethan and Rosie and Max still looking for gifts. The kids were all so patient.
Here you get a glimpse of Erin, Stewart's wife. She is the most amazing woman. She has three boys and her littlest one, Drew, who just turned one, doesn't seem to ever sleep. I have no idea how Erin got up each morning, especially on Christmas morning - I think she'd only had about 2 hours sleep. But we just love her, she is so upbeat and a great wife, mother, and a totally righteous daughter of God.
Here is my mom and that is Daniel on the right. If you see the ball game in the forefront of the picture - that was a little gift we got for Drew, but boy did Rosie want it. She never let the poor boy play with it and she was constantly keep her toys away from him and trying to steal his toys. Poor little guy had no idea what was going on. We weren't really expecting it either, since we don't really have any opportunities for her to learn to share, we were a little surprised by the whole experience.
Here is a better shot of Erin and Drew. Drew is just about as smiley as can be. He is like a little bulldozer - just going where he wants when he wants and getting very upset by any obstacles along the way. He is very attached to mommy and daddy, which we discovered when we tried to babysit for about 2 hours! But when with his parents he is just laughing at them and making the sweetest faces!
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