Christmas in Oklahoma

What a beautiful Christmas Day! We really enjoyed spending time with Jeremy’s brother Michael and his family! Many years of school and work have taken them far from us, so this was our first time ever coming to visit them in their home. Jer missed his brother dearly despite regular phone calls. Their home was built recently, and it was really fun to experience what we had only imagined from videos and pictures.

Christmas as a Lloyd comes with some extra traditions I didn’t get to enjoy as a child: pajamas on Christmas Eve, unwrapped gifts from Santa on Christmas morning, and stockings overflowing with goodies. Jer insists on keeping these traditions from his childhood alive for our kids.

He told me of holidays in his grandparents’ family cabin with a giant real tree stretching to the ceiling and surrounded by a track and toy train. It’s so fun to see how each of Jeremy’s siblings has taken parts of how they grew up and adopted it for their own families. Here was my first time seeing a toy train under a Christmas tree in someone’s home! W loved playing with the Hogwarts Express train with cousins.

The kids waited so patiently to start opening presents, and were delighted with their gifts. We went quality over quantity this year, which helped when it came to transporting them across the country. Jer and I had not planned on getting each other gifts this year, but he surprised me with the most beautiful day pack for hiking or backpacking—and a matching one “from the kids” for him 😂 so we can explore together. Useful and promoting our togetherness, the perfect gift for me haha; he knows me so well!

We played together and ate together, and just enjoyed all the games and snacks. I loved hanging out with my sister-in-law and doing Legos with the kids. L was inseparable with her cousin who’s the same age as her. They made slime and had a blast giggling at secret things only they would know about.