Christmas Holidays

Our Christmas holiday was full of fun and exciting things to do. One of the advantages of having so much family close is that our holiday days are never dull. Between the two families we were busy and created many wonderful memories. My side of the family celebrates most of Christmas Christmas Eve. The girls and I spent most of our day at my Mom's getting food prepared and other things ready for the nights celebrations. When Landon was finished work, we had a dinner and then went to Lethbridge to watch the live Nativity Pageant put on by the Stirling Wards. In spite of the cold, our girls really enjoyed watching the people depict the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Shortly after we arrived, Skai reached up to me and said in great excitement "There is Heavenly Father!" Both Skai and Esther were enthralled with the whole play. Watching the angels appear from top of the church to hearing the donkey hee-haw at the right time, everything touched their hearts and helped them understand the real reason why we celebrate Christmas. After the pageant we drove around looking at lights and on our way back to Raymond we went caroling. Once back at Grandma Ogrins' house, Skai ran inside to realize that Santa had come while we were out. While snacking we sang some more carols and Grandpa Ogrins retold the Christmas story. Then Uncle Jekobs played Santa and distributed the gifts to everyone. It was fun to watch the girls open the gifts they received and see their excitement as each gift was revealed to them. That night we had a sleep over at Grandma and Grandpa Ogrins house which helped to make the night not quite as late (we were in bed by 11:30pm). The girls, still very excited, woke up at 7:00am and ran into Grandma and Grandpa's room wanting to see if their stockings were filled. So all of us went downstairs to find out that Santa had come again and filled our stockings up with all kinds of goodies. When we all finally got dressed, we gathered our things and went to visit Grandma and Grandpa Hardy, and then took our things home to let Esther have a nap. Both of the girls and both of us were really ready for a nap, but Esther was the only one lucky enough to have one. Landon and I got things ready for the Ogrins Christmas dinner and also for the Hardy Christmas dinner. By the time we were finished it was time to go again. We ate a little bit of dinner with my family and saved some room for the next one. After visiting with family for a bit we went to Cara's early so we could let the girls play with their cousins before it was bedtime. It was really enjoyable visiting with everyone at Cara's and to see some family that we don't get to visit with very often (aka. Lowyn and Heather). By the time 9pm came around our girls were over tired and really needed to be at home to sleep in order to keep the other cousins safe (they get cranky and aggressive when over tired). So as fun as it was to be there, we had to leave the party early. Sleep was very much look forward to.

Our next holiday adventure was New Years Eve. New Years is a big thing for my family. Once again we spent most of our afternoon at my parent's place getting food and decorations ready for the evening. There were about 30 some people there by 9pm to help bring in the new year. We had food and snacks and played Win Lose or Draw until it got close to midnight. Esther fell asleep around 10:30pm and stayed asleep until morning. Skai wanted to play and celebrate so we let her. At midnight we all joined hands and sang the traditional song "Ole Lang Sign" (forgive the spelling) and popped balloons and threw confetti until we were tired of it. That night we slept at home, and were once again glad to go to sleep. We had a little New Years Day dinner at my parents and went to bed early that night.

Now the fun did not end there. It has been a Latvian tradition to celebrate Little Christmas on January 6 (12 days after Christmas). My brother Isaacs and his friend Haruka made us a delicious Japanese meal and we gave each other little gifts as my Dad explained to us the history behind little Christmas.

It was so much fun and very enjoyable to spend these special days with so much family. We feel blessed to have everyone as close as they are and treasure the time we get to spend together. As sleep deprived as we were over the holidays we wouldn't trade those memories for anything in the world. We love you all!