Christmas Eve

This year, we spent Christmas Eve at Rob's parents house!
This was our first time doing this and we sure loved it! It was so fun to be involved in their traditions and celebrate this wonderful night together! 

The day started out with the kids and dads going sledding. They headed down to a nearby sledding hill in Thatcher where unfortunately, a scary experience happened. Drake went down on a sled by himself and because he weighed so little he went a lot farther then any of the kids had gone before him. He just kept going and going and suddenly fell into a canal. Rob was watching from the top of the hill and was sure there was no way his sled would go that far, the canal was far off and the ground was level and straight leading up to it. But Drake just didn't stop and so Rob took off running (falling down the hill several times). While running, Drake went off the canal-bank so Rob could no longer see him. Rob said he was absolutely terrified of what he might find. He didn't know if the canal was covered in ice and Drake might have gone under or if the canal water was deep or fast-running. Rob ran full speed and leaped into the canal where he saw Drake treading water and being kept afloat by his big puffy winter coat. Drake had fallen about 4 feet from the canal-bank into the water and had barely missed a cement slab. Rob jumped in and grabbed him and held him and was so thankful he was okay. The water was actually quite warm because it was coming from a warm spring. So...in the end, everything was completely okay, but it was terrifying to Rob and those there to think about what COULD have happened. There could have been so many terrible ends to this story, but thankfully our Heavenly Father was watching over Drake. After this scary incident, everyone headed straight home and we quickly put Drake in a warm bath. He was a little shaken up, but completely fine. We said many prayers of gratitude that he was okay and that he'd been protected. I know this is a somber story, but we always want to remember that Drake was watched over. 

So, back to Christmas Eve. It really ended up being a fun day! The boys were sad that they never really got to sled, so we figured out an easier, safer way and they had a blast together! 

Nathan and Drake being pulled by Rob-

Nathan was so nice to let Drake ride his wheelchair around. Drake seriously spent almost every minute of our time there in it. He thought it was so fun to wheel himself everywhere!

I love this scene-

Christmas Eve dinner- 

 The kids acting out the nativity (Drake in Nate's wheelchair again- silly kid)- 

We played games, opened presents, and just enjoyed being together!

Oh...and dressed Sara up like a cute little candy cane!