Emma's Special Christmas

Emma was able to have a fun and special Christmas this year. Since Burke was in the hospital over Christmas we had to send Emma somewhere else to be taken care of. The first 5 days while B was in the hospital, Emma stayed with my parents. She had a blast! She loved playing and working outside with Grandpa planting flowers and working inside with Grandma making cookies and baking.The picture above is in front of the house I grew up in. I just love this picture.My parents recently sent us some pictures of the flowers Emma planted with Grandpa over while she was there in December. It was fun to see what she had done especially since these are my favorite flower!! Thanks grandma and grandpa for the fun couple of weeks!!


Emma then flew with Grandma Johnson back to Boise to spend Christmas with Tyler's sister Becca and her family. She has always gone to their house while Burke has had his surgeries and she wanted to go back again. She LOVES it at their house! She fits in perfectly and is like one of the kids. Katerina especially loves her since she doesn't have a sister. Emma is the fill in sister and Katerina loves it! Here are some of Emma's special Christmas away from home. It was bitter sweet for us. There was no way it was going to work out to have her at the hospital with us since children who aren't being treated in the hospital cannot go into the hospital, but we knew that she was being loved and cared for well at the Labradors!
Here is Kat with her "little sis"

The kids waiting to open their presents

How Becca saved Christmas. This year the story doesn't read, "How Santa saved Christmas," it was definitely "how Becca saved Christmas!" for sure. The baby that E is holding above was a $7 purchase at Walgreen's on Christmas Eve. E had told EVERYONE that Santa was bringing her a baby doll. I had sent all her Christmas gifts up to Idaho with her and was confident that the 5 or so little doll house dolls would suffice. Oh no. Those to E was not a baby doll. Oh no. So, Becca being an experienced mama, sprang into action. Literally on her way home from spending Christmas Eve with the whole family and grandma's she stopped at the corner Walgreen's hoping there was a baby doll that would do. It was small but perfect, and the price was great too. She bought it. Christmas morning came and E was NOT disappointed! After she opened it I guess she told everyone that she knew Santa was going to bring her a baby doll. Thank you Bec for saving the day and my tail. She didn't get the idea ingrained in her head until right before Christmas. She is so funny. One more baby doll added to the pile make like 6 babies for E! She kills me.

E was obsessed with their cat Bella. She is just like how her mommy was when I was little. I LOVE it!

She fits right in with their cute family!

These last two are from grandma's house. They aren't the greatest quality I think they were from a camera phone, but this is a very classic holiday setting at grandma J's and I love it. We sure did miss going home to Tyler's parents house this year. We skyped the family one time during the holiday to see if we were missing anything and sure enough everyone was just sitting on the couches just talking and hanging out. Classic. We weren't missing a thing everyone was just sitting around. I love it! We really did wish we were there though even if it was just to "sit around"!

I know E had a wonderful Christmas-her first Christmas away from home (we start sending them off when they are young.) No, but we do appreciate everyone up in Idaho who cared for and loved her when she was up there. She didn't want to come home at all. It has been such a blessing to have her go to The Labrador's every time B has a surgery. She just knows that's where she goes and she LOVES it! They are so good to her and it is so good for her to play the younger child every so often. I think she still takes over at their house though, so we gotta work on that! Anyways, thank you so much!