Christmas 2017

Christmas 2017 was an emotional one. Right around Thanksgiving Jake started having some problems with his health and the weeks leading up to Christmas were largely occupied by getting him the help he needed, leaving little time for the pre Christmas festivities that Ty and I both love. After weeks of vet appointments, lab work and other tests we got the news the day before Christmas Eve that Jake has an aggressive form of lymphoma and only a few months left to live. We planed to spend the night at Chris and Kari's so we could wake up there and have all day to celebrate Christmas Eve. We contemplated canceling our plans since Ty and I both cried all afternoon, but decided being with family and focusing on Christmas was exactly what we needed. And it was.

We kicked off the weekend at the zoo lights and had a lovely Christmas Eve. It snowed late in the afternoon which was as magical as it was beautiful. We were home on Christmas morning and the boys went nuts. They were so excited to tear through all their gifts, they didn't really seem to care what the gifts were, they just wanted to open and open and open, and open and open. There is really nothing better than watching their Christmas morning excitement.

The Leitz-Rallo fam reconvened at Steve and Paula's late Christmas afternoon and all three families spent the night. We did gifts with the kids before dinner and enjoyed our adult gift exchange after the littles were asleep. We went to bed late, around 11:30 and Hazel was up from about midnight to 3 am.

The day after Christmas we took the boys on the Polar Express- which they loved, but was way too immediately following Christmas. Ty and I were exhausted after being up with Hazel all night and she screamed for about 80% of the hour long commute to and from.

I was scheduled to work Wednesday but ended up staying home because Hazel wasn't feeling well. Thursday morning we packed everyone up again and drove down to my moms to celebrate Christmas with the Wilhelm-McLaughin crew.

It was a crazy week and we did way too much. We didn't make it to church which is always my favorite part of Christmas and looking back I was disappointed about that. But the boys loved every activity and having time with family is what the holidays are all about. In coming years we're going to have to find a way to scale it back but Christmas 2017 was certainly full of memories that our family will remember fondly.