No Matter Where You Are

As I have stated in my last blog, I've been having a hard time this holiday season saying good-bye to the way things use to be.  We are learning to have a new normal.  On top of that, our family has been continuously sick for the past month and a half.  It's become a bit ridiculous, and brought me to an emotional breaking point.  I needed a good cry anyway!  Ya know, at least for me, sometimes you need a good cry!  But, I picked myself back up, asked people to pray for us and I'm happy to say by Christmas Day we were all healthy (ish).  (Zeke has come down with a cold, but with no fever or anything, so that doesn't count!)
Christmas was actually pretty good.  We Skyped and opened presents with family!  It almost felt as though they were actually here for a moment.  That was nice.  And we have an unfair advantage in that my brother and his family live here too.  We spent the whole day together and Renee and I even made a very yummy Christmas dinner! Best meal I've had here by far! We felt very accomplished to make so many American dishes in a foreign country! Everything tasted close enough to the "real thing/"  It was great!
I think my problem with this holiday season is that I was trying to make it "feel" right.  The conclusion I have come to is that it will never "feel" right so I just need to embrace the fact that we need to establish a new "feel."  We need to make new traditions.  It will be the holidays my kids will know as normal, so we need to try and embrace and develop a new way of doing the holidays.  The skrony fake Christmas tree we have will be the Christmas tree our kids grow up putting their home made ornaments on.  They won't know any different! They will love that they get to Skype with grandparents on the TV as they open presents.  It's not how I grew up celebrating, but it's how my kids will.
 HOWEVER, when it all come down to it, Christmas is not about the presents, decorations, or Christmas tree.  It's about celebrating the birth of our Savior, and that we can do no matter where we live.  So, I choose to be thankful today, for our God has sent us a Savior!  Hallelujah! Merry Christmas!
What an incredible song, listen and be reminded of the true meaning of Christmas...  

And here are a few pics from our Christmas!

 Reading the Christmas story by our Christmas tree!

 Spiderman hats and m&ms.  They were pretty happy!

 Opening presents on Skype with Mimie and Gammie

 Renee and I made Christmas dinner! Very fun and we are still eating leftovers!

 Christmas dinner!

Cousins!