Not My Normal Christmas

It’s been a while since I wrote a blog. I had big plans to write many blogs over the holidays. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out. Having a sick husband kind of takes up a lot of time and energy. However, that is a subject for another blog.

Christmas is my favorite time of year. I love Christmas music, Christmas movies, baking, shopping for gifts, giving gifts, cold weather, decorating for Christmas, church celebrations, etc. I look forward to it all year. I plan for the crafts I’m going to make and the things I’m going to bake.

However, this year didn’t go according to plan. Lee had been sick since late October. I don’t want to go into those details, but our lives had not been normal for a while. He was starting to get better as we got closer to Thanksgiving. A few days before we left for Headland, I got out our Christmas decorations. I put out everything except for the tree. I wanted Lee and I to put the tree up together and I thought we could do it when we got back from seeing my family at Thanksgiving. We went home for Thanksgiving and Lee had mostly bad days. He felt good on Thanksgiving Day luckily. The week we got back from Headland, Lee got sick again and ended up in the hospital. Then, after he was discharged, he was only home a few days before ending up back in the hospital. By the time he was discharged again, there were only a few days left before we were going to leave for Headland for Christmas. By then, I decided it wasn’t worth it to put the tree up. Up to this point, I had also done no Christmas baking and I hadn’t watched any Christmas movies. It was also unseasonably warm. This just didn’t feel like Christmas.

Thankfully, Lee has bounced back wonderfully. We have been able to still make our trip home for Christmas. Now that Christmas has come and gone, it still doesn’t feel right. Christmas did come, though, and here are some pictures to show how we spent it.

Lee was able to go hunting and he shot a doe and shared the meat.

We opened gifts with my family.

We played Dirty Santa with the Snellgrove's and, as usual, Meemaw was the life of the party.

We went to Panama City Beach to celebrate with the DeShazo's.

My family.

We exchanged presents with Lee's family.

Lee's family.

Even though it hasn't felt like Christmas, we had a good time visiting with family and friends. I hope all of you had a Merry Christmas and will have a Happy New Year!