Merry Christmas!

We woke up to find that Santa indeed did find us in Branson!

How is he so smart?!

Checking out their things under the tree. 

We had to leave it because we needed to get to church by 9!

The building was a buzz!
I guess they combined 2 wards plus a Spanish branch just for that day.

And we saw multiple Hughes sightings!

Kind of fun to remember faces from kids and adults from the night before.

One of the brothers is in the bishopric and even conducted the church services.

It was mainly singing by the choir with a some speakers.

Christmas on Sunday is probably one of my favorite things.

Back to jammies and seeing what Santa brought them!

How did he know the girls have been begging for a claw clip?!

And a mini LOL ball. 

He must have also known Lanes truck smelled like boys and needed Sex wax car fresheners.
And Rusty's crocks were pretty boring without those tacky emblem button things. 

And WAY too much candy!

Those smiles meant it was still a great Christmas even
 without piles of presents to open!

We made biscuits and gravy for breakfast.

They are basically teenagers. 

We enjoyed a few more hours of chill time.

My Christmas nap in the recliner was heavenly!

Time to pack up. 

Finally, a restaurant on my list open!
Christmas day non-the-less.

I'll take it.

We went to McFarlain's.
A food from scratch type of place.

These cobblers were money!

The crust was thick and flaky, yumm!

Took our drive back to the airport.

I was a little nervous how this would go.

All over the news was horror stories of every airline canceling flights due to weather.

I was expecting pure chaos at the airport.

We walked in to it basically empty.

It felt like they had just turned the lights on for the first time that day.

I think we were the first flight out that night? 

Which was weird because it was a 10pm flight!

We got through security in 2 minutes.
No need for our TSA pre check.
 Just nice we don't have to take our shoes off anymore!

It was pretty uneventful.

The coloring stuff I brought kept those 2 busy while we waited to board. 

Just making himself at home.

We boarded on time and back home once again!

I copied this from my instagram account.

"Don't let the smiles fool you that this trip went smooth as butter.
We had more hiccups than I would like to admit.

Everyday our plans changed drastically because of inclement weather and cancelled events.

We hardly got to check mark off half of our original itinerary. We dealt with the typical meltdowns
and teenage moodiness. However, without a doubt I know the Lord planned exactly what we needed

to experience together as a family. So, I will call that our Christmas miracle!!"

This trip was everything for me.
I know it may be some time before we can take another trip together during Christmas.
I loved that we got to go out of the normal traditions and do something different together.

Sometimes we need change in our lives without even knowing it. 

It had been a long time since all 4 kids have had quality interaction time together.

No distractions or outlets to escape away to. 

We were stuck in a 1000 sq ft cabin together for 24 hours and that may have been the biggest 

blessing of it all! 

It was a very, Merry {white} Christmas!