Miscellaneous Monica: December 2008

We had a great Christmas spending time with family! On Christmas Eve, we went to Monument to be with Chris' parents and his sister Lydia. We hung out, ate lots of yummy food, played Apples to Apples and attended a beautiful midnight mass at their church. On Christmas morning we exchanged presents with everyone and ate breakfast. After breakfast we gathered everything up and headed to my parents house in Castle Rock. We enjoyed stockings and presents from Santa with my parents, James, Grandma Youngs, and my aunt Judi and uncle Steadman.

The family expanded since last year with 2 dogs... Uber and James' new puppy, Penny. Lucy and Uber played and wrestled outside as Penny tried to join in, although she is quite a bit smaller and timid...for now (she is a German Shepherd/American Bulldog mix, so she has a lot of growing to do). Hopefully when she gets bigger all the dogs can play together!

In the afternoon, my aunts and uncles, Sheila, Tim, Cheryl and Gary came over for a delicious Christmas dinner and gift exchange. There were two very important people missing from the celebration in Castle Rock this year as they both passed recently... Grandmother Allen and Granddad Youngs. However, I do believe that they were there in thought and spirit.

It was a fun day, and we are so blessed to be able to spend time with both of our families on the same day. Though we can't be at both places for everything, I think we get the best of both worlds!