Christmas 2013

Christmas 2013 went differently than we anticipated, we had a power outage that left our house dark and cold for 10 days so we had to be flexible with our plans and expectations. I am so thankful we live a short hour away from family who welcomed us (and our pets) with open arms and excitement! 

But before we lost power: 

We decided to get a live Christmas tree this year! We had so much fun wandering Horrocks, a fun local grocery store, and picking one out. 

We had to do some rearranging in our living room to make it fit! But we made it work. :) Lucy and Michael were SO excited to decorate the tree - it was an "interesting" event to say the least... decorating a tree with toddlers isn't as romantic as it sounds. haha

We decorated and ate Christmas cookies together! What? Your Christmas cookies don't usually include dinosaurs?! :)

And then, on Sunday, December 22nd we woke up to a dark house and quiet city. There had been an ice storm the night before leaving  the majority of Lansing (and much of mid Michigan) without power. Church was canceled (the building had no power) but we made the most of our Sunday, assuming the outage would be a short event. Friends from Life Group brought over a generator, we ran space heaters and had enough power to watch the Lions play football.

 The temperature in the house stayed above 55 degrees that first day.

It was beautiful outside, everything was white and icy. 

We woke up the next day and the temperature was right at 50 degrees inside. The electrical company's early estimates were really vague but were predicting that the majority of Lansing would be out of power until after Christmas. The "fun" and "adventure" had worn off, we were cold and grumpy (just being honest). We decided to pack up and head to Hastings (they had lost power early on the 22nd also, but it came back on about 18 hours later) where we knew we would be warm. 

We had a really nice Christmas with family (most of our day of pictures are on the hard drive).

Gordon's First Christmas

 In the week following Christmas, we filled our time with: 

Playing with new toys, games and puzzles.

arts and crafts,

 Cuddling and resting,

 Comparing Gordon with Brad's baby pictures (too bad he doesn't look like his daddy :) ),

 Soaking in smiles,

visiting Grandma's classroom (a welcome outing!),

and waiting... lots of waiting! We were finally able to head home on December 31st, New Years Eve, after our power on our street was restored. That evening I posted on Instagram:

"Not much went according to plan this holiday season, but tonight, as we celebrate Christmas as a family, I'm reminded where my longings - for love, security, comfort & home - are fulfilled."