The Walker Clan: The Holidays

Luke and I are so blessed to have wonderful families on both sides! The only difficult part of that situation is being away from one side or the other on any given holiday. Someday we will win the lotto, buy a ton of land, and build a Walker/Maissen family compound where we can all live happily ever after. Until then, we will continue to rotate Thanksgiving each year and split Christmas break in two so that we get time with both families. This year we spent Thanksgiving at the Walker's. Bekah wrote a great post about the highlights of that 5 day vacation which was aptly titled "the Owen show". Click on the title and you can read her lovely writing and see a few pics from the weekend. Silly me didn't take any pictures while I was there!

Christmas felt like a whirlwind! After a 36 hour stop in Spokane the week before Christmas to visit my extended family, Owen and I returned home to find Luke sick with the flu. He spent the next four days on a pedialyte diet while the rest of us enjoyed a breakfast feast prepared my Dad, a pioneer woman themed Christmas dinner, and Bev's famous sugar cookies. Despite missing out on some good fixen's, Luke was a great sport and joined in on the family fun whenever his energy allowed. For the second year in a row we made our way up to Seattle to enjoy Christmas Eve service with Jennie and Chris at their church. We then gathered down here Christmas morning to open presents and partake in LOTS of eating. Of course Owen stole the show this year. All 9 adults just sat and watched as he ripped at paper, chewed on boxes and bows, and paid very little attention to the new toys he had just received.

The day after Christmas, Luke and I packed up and made the quick trip over to Bremerton. While we were there, we enjoyed some quality family time, daily homemade lattes, and of course a few extra helping hands with Owen :). This extra help was quite handy since just a few days before we left Owen decided that it was high time to start teething again. This time around however, he wanted all of us to know that the top teeth are a lot more painful than the bottom. Needless to say, Luke and I didn't get much sleep at night, but Bev, Rick and Bekah were always ready the next morning to take Owen and give us a little more time to rest. It is pretty hard to leave that kind of help behind so we didn't, and our short visit quickly went from four days to six. Before we knew it, New Years Eve was upon us and we were gearing up for another long night. But for the first time that week, Owen decided to go to bed early and actually stay asleep. Since we were all pretty tired, we slowly made our way to bed one-by-one. Luke and I were the last to go at 11:30, and just as we were about to crawl into bed, Owen decided it was time to wake up, of course. So Luke, Owen, and I rang in the New Year nestled in bed listening to the fireworks outside. It was kind of a nice way to start a New Year.

Now we are back home, everyone is healthy, and Owen's tooth looks like it could pop through any day. I hope your holidays were filled with family, food, and wonderful memories just as ours were.

Walker family picture on New Year's Day