Richard's parents and his younger siblings stayed the night on Christmas day. The day after Christmas, Richard and his dad headed off to Home Depot and the rest of us went shopping. Richard and his dad spent the rest of the day doing projects around the house. His dad and Richard's siblings left that night and his mother stayed another night. It was nice to have the extra help :0 ) On Saturday we went to the California State Train Museum in Sacramento which is only about 45 minutes away.
Steven got a ton of trains for Christmas (and his birthday this past year) so he was very excited. The whole way there he kept saying "I'm cited, I'm cited(I'm excited)." He fittingly watched Thomas on the trip there and back. None of us had been to the museum in a while so it was really cool to see it again. Steven had a blast walking through all the trains and spent quite a while upstairs playing with the huge Thomas train set(s) that they have. I was amazed by how lavish the accommodations were on those trains. Most of them were nicer than any house I've ever been in. The craftsmanship was simply astounding! You just don't see that kind of quality anymore; they reminded me of old victorian houses. We got to the museum just before it opened and spent about 2 hours inside. We left just as it was getting extremely busy. After, we stopped by the gift shop to pick up yet another toy train and a train pin for Steven. Then we took a walk in Old Sacramento and picked a place for lunch. It was a very nice day out which only added to the enjoyment. There were horse-drawn carriages going up and down the street too. It was awesome to see Steven enjoying an experience that we both had as children.
So over the past month a lot of changes have taken place in our lives. We purchased our first home and closed on December 12th, 2008 after much craziness; I won't go into all the gritty details but it seemed like the Lord really wanted us to work to get into our new home :) We don't mind though, the good things are worth working for right? We have spent pretty much every waking hour since at the house painting and cleaning and fixing up things, and also getting the house ready for Christmas. We moved in on Saturday, December 20th, 2008 just in time for Christmas. Oh, yea before I forget, we found out on December 19th that we are having another little boy! We are so excited to be having a little brother for Steven; his name will be Jonas Richard Danelz. So we moved in and barely got unpacked when we hosted a Christmas Feast at our house. All of our family came to see the new house and eat a ton of food. We also found a church this month! We have been having a really tough time finding a church here in Fairfield. Its not that there aren't any good churches, we just couldn't find one that felt right. We have been here since July and have been trying out different churches pretty much every week (I've lost count of how many we've tried). We just love this one; it felt like home before we even got out of the car, even though we were skeptical to find out it is held in a real estate office, lol. Its funny how we think we can just pick a church, when in reality the church picks you, and really God pick the right church for you. Anyways, Steven was supposed to be a shepherd in the Christmas Eve program. Pam, Sarabeth, and MaryJo even came down on Christmas Eve to see him in it, but when the time came he refused to wear his costume. So we all watched the program together. Pam, Sarabeth, and MaryJo spent the night at our house that night and were here with us on Christmas morning which was very nice. Steven was so excited to have them here. He showed them all his new room which is decorated in Disney's Cars theme. He loves it.
Christmas morning, Steven opened his stocking with Nana (Pam); he was really into it this year which was fun to see. I'm not sure how he knew what was going on though lol, we never really told him about it. Then I made breakfast and started baking Christmas cookies; my sister, Jen, helped me and together we made my Grandmother Erna's German Christmas cookies. They didn't last the day. Then I started to make the main dishes. When most of the people were here we opened presents, and man were there a ton for Steven! He was so cute opening them. He would unwrap one and then bring it to the closest adult and ask them to open it. We had to ask him to wait until we were all done or the living room would have been full of toys. When he unwrapped them, which he did all by himself, he would look at the package and if the side with the tape was not up he would flip it over. Then he would rip it open from the point where the tape is! Sometimes I really think he has OCD, lol. After that I finished the food and we all dug in.
The menu consisted of spinach dip in a bread bowl and bacon wrapped shrimp with pineapple for appetizers; Ham, fully loaded mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, a salad, and rolls for the main dish. We had apple pie with ice cream and pumpkin pie with whipped cream for dessert. It was awesome to have everyone here in our new house for Christmas. It was kind of crazy, but definitely worth the work. With all the craziness this holiday season, it was especially important that we didn't lose sight of what Christmas is really about- Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. None of this would have been possible without Him in our lives and without the sacrifice He made for us. With a little one it can be tough to keep the celebration Christ centered, but we made sure to keep pointing Steven back to Him. Our hope is that each year he will understand more and more about what Christ did for us..JPG)