The -gh is Decorative

Over the last few years my family has gone through a metamorphosis and I feel it the most around Christmas. My younger brother (he's 23, I'm 26) joined the Navy right out of high school and has been stationed in Japan for the last three years. His release date is August 2012 and I believe he will be in Japan until then. The last time I saw him was my wedding in November last year. Thankfully he gets to come home for two weeks in January. We'll be taking EV to St. Joe to meet her uncle! I can't remember the last time he was home for Christmas, maybe two years ago? Maybe longer? Although Christmas doesn't mean the same thing anymore.
Also in the last few years my mom has converted to being a Jehovah Witness. I was really upset by all of this when it first happened but now through a lot of prayer, searching, discussion, research, etc. I have come to an understanding with the Witness community. By no means am I a Witness and I never intend to be. I fully believe in Jesus Christ and his divinity. I believe He is our path to salvation and through this belief I know I will meet Him in Heaven. One part of the Witnesses is their unwillingness to celebrate holidays, especially Christmas. This has been the hardest since to me Christmas not only means celebrating Christ's birth but also a time to spend with family and reconnect.
This year my mom and dad went down to their houseboat in Kentucky. A lot of our Christmas traditions have not carried on and that has been hard for me. But, as Ed put it today, I get to have a clean slate to make new traditions with my new little family. I was excited about this but it's also daunting task to pull off Baby's first Christmas and really our first big Christmas celebration since last year we were on a plane to St. Lucia to have our honeymoon.
So what did our new traditions entail? On Christmas Eve we went to church (a MUST in my book!). We tried out a new one, another Church of Christ because that's the type of church I grew up in. It was perfect. Music galore, I mean serious music with a choir, brass quintet and a small orchestra with various string instruments. The church was grand and it was packed. Thankfully Nona got there early to save us a set in the back. We got all dressed up and put EV in her Christmas outfit. She was perfect, seriously perfect. She made one peep and that was only to tell us she wanted food. She looked around the entire time and I wish there was video to remember how her eyebrows went straight up whenever the trumpeter hit a high note. There was a really large fan on the ceiling and that caught her attention for a while but it was the lights that really got her. The church was only 4 minutes from our house too which was great when she was super tired at the end.
This morning we woke up and opened a few presents while I got breakfast ready. One of Ed's traditions is to make coffee cake and hot cocoa for breakfast Christmas morning so that's what we did. Coffee cake is simple with Bisquick! Nona came over and we opened the remaining presents while I got dinner ready. I made my first Christmas dinner: fruit stuffed pork loin, real mashed redskin potatoes, veggies, this great jello salad with apples, walnuts, pineapple and cranberries, and peppermint cookies for dessert. I am STUFFED and exhausted from cooking all day. We also watched Christmas movies straight since last night: White Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, Scrooged, and A Christmas Carol. Now ESPN is playing and Ed is passed out on the couch while Nona does the dishes (Thank you!).
Even if the food didn't turn out or there weren't any presents this year, it was still a great Christmas because we spent it as a family.