Christmas!

Christmas was so fun this year! It was definitely a busier time of year than usual, but everything was very worth it!

We had been looking forward to being with our kids on Christmas, seeing their excitement with gifts and playing with them all day. Two weeks before Christmas, we were mostly ready but I was still busy trying to finish blankets I was making for the kids and just had some loose ends to finish up. Then Justin came to me one night. Leading up to this, our neighbors across the street are some of our favorite people. Theresa had been fighting cancer (leiomyosarcoma/LMS) for 8 years. She was now on oxygen because the cancer had spread to her lungs. Justin didn't know this, but for a few days I had been praying to know how to help Theresa. She wasn't the type to ask for favors and if I ever asked how she was, the story would get turned and I was telling her how we were doing...she was just like that. I would offer with things, but just wasn't exactly sure what to do. So, Justin told me that at work, he had thought of an idea, but wanted to run it through me. He was really excited about it and it just would not leave his mind all day. Then he went on to tell me about this playground he wanted to build for Theresa for her grandchildren for Christmas. The only thing was we were limited on time and it wasn't going to be cheap to make...we didn't have an extra couple thousand dollars to make this.

We decided that if it was going to be possible (funds) to definitely go through with the plan. Justin called Sandy. She is our relief society president but also one of Theresa's closest friends. He told Sandy his idea but that we would need donations so she said it would be done and we should go on with this idea. She went on to organize the donations and had sent out letters to people who knew Theresa to be able to contribute to this gift. It was very cool to see so many people come together and selflessly give for this woman whom we all just loved. We saw more amazing things happen each day to get this project done in such a small timeline. It turned out that one of our friend's in our ward's brother and dad worked at pitcher sports and they ended up donating the slide, swings, steering wheel, and so many other things to go on this playground...saving us hundreds of dollars. Justin's work decided that they wanted to donate the metal for the playground. Someone moving in across the street from us next door to this family worked at a paint place over by Justin's work. They ended up donating most of the paint and then giving us a good deal on the rest. It was amazing to see and be in the middle of all of this. Justin would be gone a lot working on this, but guys Justin worked with would stay late with him welding and when they would have slow days at work, they let Justin work on the playground during hours. Because of all of the material donations on top of all of the cash donations, we were way under budget and were able to give quite a bit of money along with the swing set Christmas morning. Christmas eve night at 11:30, tons of our family members along with neighbors came to help move the playground into their back yard so they would wake up and see it. It was definitely a memorable Christmas.
Christmas eve we went to dinner...we always go to LaFerrovia but because of the playground and getting things finished up, we were just too late. They were closed so we headed to Applebees then still went to LaFerrovia's the next Tuesday (it's Mya's favorite restaurant). We sang Christmas songs, read stories and scriptures and set out cookies. The kids went right to bed...Mya was so excited for Santa to come.

Christmas morning was so fun with Parker and Mya! We got all of the presents opened before church (and yes, we kept checking facebook waiting for an update on Theresa's page...wondering if they had seen it yet). Mya kept saying thanks mom and dad...they loved everything. During the day we went and visited grandparent's and parent's houses. Mya said it was the best day of her life! Theresa had posted pictures of the playground before church and said how she had seen it while at the sink that morning and was blaming Shane for doing it. After church, her grandkids came over and they loved playing on it.