A merry little Christmas

There were several times on Christmas Eve that I felt melancholy.  I know that's no way to be on Christmas Eve, but I was.

I kept thinking that next year Braeden will be gone and I am not sure how I will be very happy.  I am pretty sure I'll adjust and get used to it.  I just don't know how.

So there was that. (Last night when I finally got to talk to my parents--it's hard to have such popular parents--I told them they needed to tell me that I'd be OK and they did.  No wonder they're so popular...)

On the afternoon of Christmas Eve we took a walk up into the canyon by our house.

This is a misleading picture because that's Mark and me walking back towards home so it should really be at a later point in the post.  But here it is.  It amazes me how close we are to beautiful places to walk and pretty vistas to see.

What a lovely world.

We walked along the creek and admired all the icicles we found on rocks.

Some of us pretended to be unicorns.

Then she built a little icicle forest.

As Emma's go, she's a pretty good one.

I think in the above picture she was watching her goofball brothers.

They decided to get up on a rock and jump across the water.  Just because they could.

First, they would pontificate:

Then leap:

I think Braeden was feeling young and vital because then he picked me up.

It doesn't seem that long ago that our relationship was more like this.

I still like him, even though he's man-size, and fortunately he did not throw me in the creek.

(He's not dumb.)

Adam was mostly the photographer of the adventure but I think Emma took this picture:

We came home to put the finishing touches on everything and to enjoy an evening together.

We woke up to snow falling which is a nice way to wake up on Christmas morning.

Unfortunately, Braeden, who looks healthy enough in this photo, got sick as the day progressed.  We usually have illness every other Christmas.  You've got to give us credit for consistency.    We otherwise had a nice day and a wonderful dinner at Ammon and Melanee's.

Emma and I each got a ukelele, so now I have two goals:  learn to play it and try to get my house straightened up after yesterday.

Wish me luck.