Merry Christmas from the Porters

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Porter Family!
We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and were able to spend some time with the people who annoy you the most, yet you somehow love the most too! If you're looking at this you probably know just how many there are of us crazy Porters. That is, unless you're a blog stalker and to all of you we say, welcome!
This Christmas marks the one year anniversary of Maryn's husband, Joey's passing. It was such a sudden thing for all of us and we have spent the last year grieving, depending and surviving on the love and support of one another. We have all been impressed with the immense amount of strength Maryn has displayed throughout this and although there are some days that are crappier than others she always seems to keep her chin up and put one foot in front of the other. Like she says, two steps forward then one step back. Day by day little sis. You are such an example to ALL of us and we feel blessed to call you family. I think this time of year will always be hard for Maryn and because of that we decided to hit the road and change locations for Christmas. The whiners of Utah County were grateful to leave their snow bound homes and enjoy the warmer weather of southern California. Like the entry before this one said, we all arrived one by one. By Christmas Eve we had all assembled in Craig's house. We missed having Jeff and his family with us but each of us were able to talk to him for a few minutes as we passed the phone around. Mom said it felt like the many times before we had made those special phone calls on Christmas Eve to talk to our missionaries. It was great to talk to him and we were VERY impressed with the behavior of all the little kids. They played quietly while we all talked, knowing that as soon as we got off the phone we would be opening our presents under the tree, a German tradition that our family has used since our parents marriage.

Once we got off the phone we headed upstairs and started the mayhem. Like usual, we passed out the presents and started from youngest to oldest. Before that Craig talked about the true meaning of Christmas and why we really were all there, together at this time of year. Nathan, being the honest 5 year old that he is responded with, "we're here to open presents!" Gotta love the kid! Presents were open and tears were shed on gifts given and those few empty seats we all seemed to be aware of. But like Porter tradition, we sure did have a lot of laughter! Craig got the coveted Santa suspenders and trophy for doing something either FANTASTIC or LAMETASTIC throughout the year. Luckily, his was good. Mom presented him with the "Best Director" award for his promotion this year. He thanked all the little people and mentioned that he couldn't have done it without all their support. Ahh, good times! Mom gave GG a book with pictures of all her kids, grandkids, and even great grandkids! GG LOVED it and looked at it multiple times. It was great having her there with us!

AND THEN THERE WAS CHRISTMAS MORNING. . . . Santa had come and surprisingly, most of the kids weren't even up until 8:00am. Justin was the only one who was up by 5am and even snuck down by the tree. Sure, leave it to the 14 year old to be naughty!!!!! Here are just a few highlights of that morning. Katie and Adam were back up in Orange County opening presents with Adam's mom. Everyone else was at Craig's house. Well, almost everyone. Holly, Brooke, and Maryn were snoozing away that morning. As they saw it, they would get a FULL report of what Santa brought so why did they need to be up at the crack of dawn?!?!?!?!

Christmas day was just a random day and we LOVED it! We just layed around and did nothing but hang out. I think Craig spent the first 5 hours of his day downloading itunes onto Madi and Ally's ipods and switching over Justin's new cellphone. What a good dad! He did all that while Laura, Brooke, and Maryn layed in Laura's big bed and played with her new camera and had the kids wait on us. Dude, she's got a good thing going for her. She has 4 sets of hands and legs who are all capable of running downstairs and getting things, putting in the movie, getting the phone, etc. etc. etc. From the pictures below you can tell we all had WAY too much time on our hands but who cares? What else could we do? Everything is closed (except the 7-11) so we figured we should just make the most of it!!!

So there you have it, a little glimpse at the madness we like to call our lives! We all had a great time and NO ONE wanted to go home. We all had a fabulous time and nothing too bad happened. Oh, except that one time Brooke "rolled" through a red light while turning right and something flashed at her. Oops, I didn't mean to do it officer! Hey, it was Christmas morning for crying-out-loud. I was just doing the traditional "California Stop" since I was in the state it was named after! Who knows what will happen with that one. Hopefully nothing. But if I end up getting a letter in the mail with a picture of me running a red light and a $300 ticket attached to it, I will be asking for donations. Consider it an early birthday and Christmas present! And they expect us to be of good cheer . . .

A BIG THANK YOU TO CRAIG AND LAURA WHO LET US ALL CRASH AT THEIR CASA!!