A very merry flooded Christmas

 This Christmas was very different four our family.  The week started wonderfully and ended good but not as jolly as it could have been.  On Thursday 12/22, Jake created reindeer games for the family where we competed for various prizes from snacks to gift cards to a $100 bill.  We spent about 2-3 hours laughung at each other, competing, and looking like crazies. One of the highlights was when Aubree spewed all over Ginny and when we were asked to see who could stand outside the longest with a wind chill of -14.  

 

My brother Michael and part of his family came in for a few days and we met them for lunch on Friday (12/23). Temperatures had been in the single digits with wind chills in the negative numbers. We came back from lunch and the downstairs of our home was flooded with about a half inch of standing water.  Immediately we worked as a family to get as much of it as we could up. After about ten solid hours of work, we had family prayer -expressing how grateful we were that it was not worse, and decided to head to bed for the night. As Christopher and Aubree were in the hall placing a put to catch dripping water, the ceiling collapsed on them. Fortunately no one was hurt but it added another couple hours of cleaning. We did open gifts that evening as many were wet and we needed to see if ruined and get out of wet boxes. 

 

 

 

Christmas Eve, we spent more time cleaning during the day and went to Rebekah and Adams to shower that evening and for dinner.  We visited a bit then headed home to proceed with some of our traditions. That night to read "The Other Wiseman: and sing carols together. We were a little disappointed that there would be no obstacle course this year but I did awake early and placed clues around the house for the boys to find their stockings.

Jake shared in his 5 minute message on Sunday (Christmas Day) that we have truly learned the past couple of days that happiness is not determined by our circumstances. Our home was chaotic but music filled the air and we spoke of the Savior.