Christmas with the Widdowsons and Elsburys!

We had a good Christmas with both families this year. It is nice to be able to spend time with family. We went to Gibbon on Christmas Eve to spend the day and night with my family. We missed the excitement the night earlier when Delanie got burnt by boiling potato water. Eliza and Dad took her to the ER and they wrapped her all up. She was doing much better when we saw her and just had to be careful. Matt had to work that morning, so he came later. Lily stayed with Grandma and her cousins while us ladies: Laurie, Eliza, Virgie, and I went shopping with Dad. It is now a tradition I guess for Dad to spoil us girls. ha ha!

We had a nice dinner and then we got ready to go to church for the Christmas Eve service. Before we arrived there, we all went to visit Mullen. We each had a candle and stood around him wishing he were with us. Delanie and Caden found his star in the sky (if you look, it is the brightest one up there!). We sang and prayed to thank God for the wonderful memories He gave us with Mully. We are all definitely missing our special little boy.

The Christmas Eve service was nice. Virgie and Maverick sang Silent Night and it was beautiful. I like going back to church there because everyone is like family. It was nice to see some people I haven't seen in awhile.

After church we went back to Mom and Dad's to open gifts. Let's just say there was plenty for everyone. It is so fun to give to one another. Lily and Sydney had fun opening their gifts. All the kids couldn't wait to play with some of their gifts. Lily got some cute clothes, wagon, glow worm and much more. I was excited to go and try out my Wii Fit. Matt and I have fun on it.

Lily's pretty Christmas dress!

Lily is surrounded by gifts with Aunt Gig, Syd, and Mav.

Lily and all the other kiddos got tired while the adults opened their gifts. Who could blame them? They wanted to go play with gifts and get ready for Santa Claus. Lily fell asleep on Gigi like this. We went back to GI that night and left in the morning for O'Neill.



We got up to O'Neill where they were waiting for us. We had a nice lunch and then opened up gifts. Once again we were spoiled. Lily got a baby doll and a phone that she loves to talk on. We went out to Mark and Jackie's new house and it was looking great. They can actually see that the end is near. Next year's Christmas will be in a new house. Yeah. Chantele was home, so we got to spend some time with her. We hadn't seen her for awhile.

Lily passing out gifts.

Is this one for me??? No, its for Daddy.


Later that afternoon we left for Matt's Aunt Carol's house by Bartlett. The whole Jareske family was there. We took a big family picture and it was quite a task to get everyone (kids and babies) to cooperate. Lily had fun playing with Molly. Molly is Shawn and Mandy's little girl and is about a month older than Lily.

Megan's husband dressed up as Santa and surprised the kids. Matt and I thought Lily would be fine with him, but she wanted nothing to do with him. Molly did such a good job sitting with him and even played with his beard. Lily was clinging to Daddy and crying. Poor thing, maybe next year.

On our way back to O'Neill, Grandma Mary came with us. Matt and I sat in the back with her and Matt asked her a lot of questions about when she was growing up and about his Grandpa. It was very interesting to hear her stories.

We stayed the night and went to visit Grandma Darla in Atkinson the next day. Chantele, Matt, Lily and I went and opened presents and visited with Grandma Darla, Max, Cheryl, and Nate. Nate is almost three and was such a hoot. It was nice to see them since they live in California and we don't see them much. Grandma Darla gave Lily such a wonderful gift. Her mother's name was Lily and she had a crocheted "purse" that had LILY stitched on the front. Lily's mother had made it for her. So, our Lily's Great Great Great Grandma made it for her Great Great Grandma and now it belongs to our Lily Jo Elsbury. Isn't that awesome? Lily will love that gift when she gets older.

We visited Jackie at work and Mark at the house before we left and told Chantele and Emily goodbye. Jessica and Landon had already left earlier. The holiday definitely went too fast.


I hope you all had a great Christmas!!!!! Sorry this post was late, but a new one about the Florida trip will be coming soon.