Christmas in Montana 2008

This year, House of Miller stayed close to home for the holidays. Originally, a surprise trip was planned to Idaho (nothing like getting surprised by a baby that doesn't sleep the entire night ;) ) but, due to excessive amounts of snow between Jordan and Lewiston, we decided to stay put. Something about a lack of romance in telling people that we spent Christmas in Motel 6 while our car was getting towed from the interstate ditch and to the body shop! Anne & Eric might have actually found that a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants type type of adventure (granted, only if said vehicle had minor flesh wounds) in Before Children days. But its all different now....just like our mothers told us it would be.

We were not lacking in family time in Jordan though. We have truly been blessed with good friends that have become our adopted family. Our neighbors, the Coulters, invited us to a Christmas Eve lunch at their place. As you can see, Miss Gwennie had a great time getting to know Miss Gracie, who is 9 mos. The little ones plotted the trouble they'd get into in high school while their parents stuffed themselves and played a rousing game of Apples to Apples.

Then it was on to House of Pluhar to share in their traditional Eve dinner of waffles with chokecherry syrup that made you think you'd actually died and gone to heaven. Miss Gwennie recieved several packages and was quite busy keeping everyone on their toes. Only one minor meltdown of tears and we forgave her for that, since she was wearing a dress and not her usual tomboy attire. She started with the dress, onsie, tights and ruby red shoes. Not sure if you can tell from the pictures, but her clothing became more minimal as the night wore on. First the shoes went, then the tights and so on....... Miss Maggie was very interested in "Baby Gwen" and announced her arrival at the door much like one would a finely dressed woman to a Reniassance-era ball.

Our original plan was modified slightly on Christmas Day, due to Anne being slightly under the weather and not wishing to share the bug with anyone else. Families here may have adopted us, but we think they'd draw the line at sharing ALL of our experiences together. Anne was thinking the modest bout of illness had something to do with the number of cookies consumed in the past week (butter anyone? ;) ) So, we had a quiet Christmas Day here, with plenty of good coffee (Eric) and water (Anne). Dinner was sirloin steak, rice and green beans before we toddled off to read our new books in bed.

All in all a good holiday!