My Best Christmas Present

No disrespect to the presents currently underneath our Christmas tree with my name on it--but I have already had my best Christmas gift this year.

It started with a door bell on Tuesday night, December 5th.  I had gotten home from work, made dinner for Gary and I (a rare occasion lately), then gotten in my pjs to take part in a phone meeting with the local director of Pro Life Utah.  She was seeking to share information and ask for support for a bill in Utah regarding fetuses with Down syndrome.  We were in the middle of this interesting discussion when the aforementioned doorbell rang. As I said, I was in my pjs so I moved to the back of the house, because the dogs were going crazy while Gary was making to the door.  In a second, he came in and told me to come out--"Not in my pjs," I didn't care who was dropping off a Christmas treat.  He insisted which was a bit odd, so I came into my kitchen and rounding the corner was TOSHA!!!! It was so great to see her and hug her in person, especially so unexpectedly.  She and her family had made the trip down from Seattle because Austen's grandfather was ill and in the hospital.

(Backstory:  Tosha, Austen and the boys arrived in Seattle on November 18th from their move from Okinawa.  They had been staying in a hotel on base waiting for their stuff to arrive and to move into their base housing on Dec. 13.  Tosha had called me over the prior weekend and told me that Grandpa Russell was very ill, but hadn't informed me that they decided the next morning to come to Utah as it was likely Grandpa Russell was going to pass away.)

They arrived Monday night and were able to visit with him a few times prior to his death on December 6th.

Tosha only stayed a few minutes that night as the boys were all asleep in their car, but we made plans for a family dinner (the one postponed from the week before) to be the time we could gather as a family and let the grandchildren meet.  It was fun to see Tosha wander a bit around the house, remembering old Christmas decorations and noticing new things (plus our bathroom remodel from a couple of years ago.)  Even as a child, Tosha would touch things like art work and cloth and it made me smile to see her do that as she took a moment being home.  I remember those days, too.  How much I loved arriving back to our home in Amarillo and seeing the familiar things.  I hope that I shared that with my mom and that she knew how much I loved the home that she and dad had made for us.

It has been almost 3 3/4 years since we were all together--which means four grandchildren have been added since then.  I was the only one who had met Cooper.  And Tosha decided to keep it a secret until the family dinner.  They were staying with Austen's dad and helping out there as well as visiting his grandfather.  Austen's stepmother had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer and had just started chemo a week earlier.  Tosha and Austen were able to take care of tasks around the house and do some spring cleaning while Tom and Michele hung out with Niki and Cooper.

It was hard to keep a secret, but Jessica deserved it because she knew that Tosha and Austen were coming the Christmas of 2014 and didn't tell us or even give any idea.  It worked well because we already had a family dinner planned on Dec. 10 to make up for missing Zander's birthday the week before.

Tosha, Austen and the boys arrived first and were able to try out the new train set I got for Christmas (I knew Gary had gotten one for me to replace the one I took to my office and I used this as an excuse to set it up early. After all, he got it for the grandchildren...and Niki is one of our train lovers.)

Niki is driving the first train on the track. 

Tosha and Austen complete the assemble of the track in anticipate of more cousins arriving...

We locked the front door which is very rare for us, especially when the kids are coming over.  They usually just walk in.  But this time, Chantel had a very special greeter as Niki opened the door and welcomed them in.........it was a fun moment as Chantel and then Scott realized who he was and that the RUSSELLS were in the house!

Tosha and Chantel are near the same age and put together an excellent salad while we were waiting for Jessica, Elessica and crew to arrive.

Niki and Scarlett who are one month apart in age lost no time in becoming friends.  Niki is showing her the train track.

We were downstairs so this is the moment that Jessica saw Tosha.  There were tears as Jessica and Elessia hugged Tosha....it is quite amazing to see your adult children interact with each other like real people who they love.

 And let the cousin fun beginning---6 little people--two 3 !/2 year olds, one 2 1/2 year old, one 1 year, 1 10 months and 1 8 months....and the last five are boys (which means very little because Scarlett can totally hold her own in any crowd.)  As the big people, we just stood back and watched the magic.

James and Niki

Liam and James

James and Zander

This picture is blurry, but I loved watching Niki and Zander interact
for a couple of minutes.  Zander thought Niki was awesome.

And this is what I imagine when we built this house and had a big game room (and my kids thought it was just for our adult parties.)

 Aunt Jena is always a crowd favorite....

Zander was able to finally have his birthday party in the middle of all of this chaos.

This is what we call the 2nd generation of grandkids (our kids have been so organized about having their children in the same time periods.)  Makes for fun cousins.  Zander, Cooper, and James.

Cooper---got to love that face!

So nice to have them home again.

 Scott and James with Tosha and Cooper

 Tried to add Jessica and Zander to the mix without much luck:

Family photos by the Christmas tree:

For some reason, I ended up with few pictures of Liam and Scarlett, but that was because they were busy having fun somewhere else in the house.  We never were able to manage a photo of the three of the first generation either.  However one of my favorite memory from this night was the three of them running around our kitchen island then all nose diving into our recliner, over and over again.  We were all sitting around watching them, having so much fun being together and being crazy.  It reminded me of times when my kids were little and we would arrive at their Giberson or Hall grandparents and cousins would be there.  There is something special about cousins and that feeling stays with you your whole life if you let it.

James got brave and crawled over to be part of the craziness.  This was into it several minutes before I got some pictures and none of them really captured--the running, jumping, and falling together with the sounds of laughter ringing through the house.  It was a perfect moment (and no one actually got hurt in all of this physical play.)

Scarlett's legs are in the back with her black leggings.  At one point, Niki had one arm around Liam and one around Scarlett as they buried their heads into the chair, laughing.  To think they haven't ever been together as cousins before.

Tosha took these photos and sent them to me:

Back in the day, it was so amazing when we made the shift from black and white to color photos.  Now sometimes that "black and white look" adds to the photo.  I love this with Cooper and I.

We thought it would be a fun idea to get all six grandkids on the couch together.  We knew that wasn't happening without a big person, so I volunteered for the job.  It wasn't successful as a photo op, but I hope that they will always remember me laughing and being with them.

Yes, the perfect Christmas present and it didn't stop there.  Stay tuned for future installments of "My Best Christmas Present."