Christmas was great and I am just now starting to get back to normal. The kids had a great time. Watching them I am remembering my excitement at their age.

What is great is that they genuinely appreciate every gift and have a wonderful enthusiasm about giving that is to be cherished.

Christmas Eve we went to my mom’s house in Newcastle, to open gifts together as we do every year. My sister, her husband and my niece came and we all exchanged gifts and ate some great food.

The next morning we open our gifts as a family. The boys awoke to see the gift from Santa. Alex got the Trees for his animals that he asked for and Parker got the drum he wanted.

After that we got cleaned up and ate breakfast, then we exchanged gifts with each other.

Afterwards we head out to Brandi’s parents house to have lunch and open gifts.

When we got back home my mom came over and the kids were excited to show everything to her. We had setup their new play sets so they wanted to show them off to her and anyone else that stops by.

We found out later that evening that Brandi’s Grandpa Powell died on the 24th and we attended his funeral on Tuesday. It was a small grave side service.

He spent over 20 years in the military some 35 years ago so the military was there and gave him a beautiful send off. It was very touching to see the reverence and honor the military display for one of their own. The folding and presenting of the flag was very emotional and the color guard captain who presented it had tears in his eyes.

After being out 35 years they still took his loss very seriously with great reverence in his honor, 6 men in full uniform took the time to be there. Our current Secretary of Defense would do good to remember this reverence of the loss of life and start personally showing he cares. Or is the loss of a soldier’s life not even with the time to sign his name?

Her Grandpa was buried in Bradley, Oklahoma. I noticed there isn’t much left there in Bradley anymore.

After the funeral we went to Brandi’s parents house and spent some time with them.

The last few days have been super busy, but I’m finally getting to some real rest. I’m off until next wed. so I’ve got to make the most of it before its back to the long hard slog.