Christmas 2008

This year, the Borich family had many new memories to create. Our Christmas story begins with Christmas Eve. We dressed up (as much as the Borich fam does) and set out to find a church service to remember what the season is really for. Ice chips falling from the sky and half-inch thick ice on our car not lucky enough to be in the garage prompted us to stay local, instead of drive the 35 miles to our normal church in Ithaca. We attended the local Methodist church for their "family-friendly" Christmas Eve service. Because Joe & I work so much in Ithaca, we don't know many people in Dryden. Therefore, our jaunt to this church led us to absolutely no one familiar. Oh, what a blessing that turned out to be...

We sat in a pew in the back, even though the Reverend invited all of us in the back to move closer. Not even 10 minutes into the service, we were contentedly singing "Jingle Bells" with the guitar and banjo-toting couple leading the music, enjoying the festive mood and being together as a family in church remembering the REAL spirit of the season. Maxie, being 2 and very vocal, hasn't mastered the "inside voice" yet. When the song was over, he cried out, "YAY, do it again!". The congregation roared with laughter. The Reverend asked, "What did he say?", so several people told him. His response was, "I think that's a great idea, let's sing it again!" So, we did... Mykah would've traded all her upcoming Christmas presents for the opportunity to fall through the floor at that point. Max embarrasses her most of the time these days! The next thing Max did (please keep in mind, the entire service was only 30 minutes long), involved the story of how Santa came to be. The Reverend introduced a man who looks exactly like Santa, but he wasn't even in costume. Max didn't care, recalling the memory of Mama, Daddy & Mykah wanting him to sit on Santa's lap, and burst out with "Maxie no LIKE Santa." Needless to say, we slunk out of the service quickly after it was over! Memories, right?!

Mykah got her game face on for some serious present opening on Christmas morning, starting at 6:05am. We told her she couldn't go downstairs or wake us until 6, she graciously waited until 6:05! Max, on the other hand, wouldn't get out of his bed for the first half hour, so we let Mykah open some of her presents first. When Max finally came downstairs, we tried to get him interested in his presents, but all he wanted to do was "watch 'Credibles." (his latest movie obsession is The Incredibles) So we lost him again, this time to the basement. Mykah got all of our attention and I'm pretty sure she was okay with it! These are some of the cuter pix of opening presents. The pure joy on her face made our hearts soar with love & gratitude for this string of new memories...

We don't know how many more Christmases we'll get to enjoy with her believing in SC, so this one was definately etched in our hearts and minds forever.

When Max finally joined us, he couldn't care less for the small mountain of presents that were left by Santa, unwrapped and in plain sight. We put Mykah on "opening Max's presents duty" for the presents under the tree and wouldn't you know it, we finally got one that he got excited over. He got new Thomas the Train shoes that light up when he walks or in the case above, stomps his feet. Score for us!

Then he got a magic drawing board exactly like the one that he loved at the doctor's office (go figure), and felt he had to yank it from Dad before it was completely out of the box. While we managed to interest him in a couple of other things he got, none compared to the new shoes. He refused to take them off, so they remained on his feet the entire day, even through his nap!

Mykah loves to sing, and she loves to perform. She asked for a microphone from Santa, but he gave her something she discovered she liked even better, a karaoke machine. He even left an add'l microphone so she & Daddy can sing duets (I feel a future post coming on!)

This is Maxie's version of karaoke...

We had a fantastic day. It was hard for me to not feel like it was the end of Christmas as I had always known it. I never in a million years anticipated that I wouldn't be with my extended family on this day, but I let the excitement of new beginnings take over. We truly made a wonderful day for our kids and we have never felt more blessed as a family. Thank goodness for speaker phones, text messaging and email to keep us somewhat connected to the others we love. I never thought the noise of my parent's house would be so comforting...

We missed you all, but we were immersed in love for each other and we'll never forget our first Christmas "away from home". We pray that God blessed you as He blessed us, for that is the true joy of the season.