Moran Family Fun

You know what's awesome about having older children at Christmas? They sleep in until almost 10 a.m. so you can get some rest after being awake until almost 2 a.m. because you were up playing Santa. Somebody has to eat those cookies after all!  We had a little breakfast and then the girls and I emptied our stockings. In the absence of their father, Emily and Abigial took on the task of finding surprises for mine. They maybe went a little overboard because they bought so many things they had to hang up a gift bag filled with things for me in addition to my stocking. We planned to have Jared there with us via FaceTime while we opened presents so we connected the computer to the television. It was a different way to do Christmas morning, but at least we were kind of all together, right? We continuted our Christmas morning tradition of hiding an ornament shaped like a pickle on the tree. In our house, the child who finds the pickle gets to open the first gift on Christm...

Samantha had a birthday and we are now the parents of four teenagers! In six weeks Madison will turn twenty so this special time won't last long. As a society, we've given teenagers a bad rap that they really don't deserve. In my experience, teenagers can sometimes be moody or inconsiderate, but the majority of the time they're a pretty remarkable, selfless, responsible, and considerate bunch. We love watching our girls as they learn, grow, and make their way in the world. Samantha is an amazing young woman. She's intelligent, conscientious, creative, funny, and sweet. She's a Christmas Eve baby, making it sometimes tricky to make sure she feels special and celebrated on her day. In the past we've split her birthday in half, spending the first part of the day focused on Samantha and then shifting gears to Christmas Eve in the evening. Last year Samantha pointed out that it wasn't a very fair arrangement. Her sisters all get a full twenty-four hours to ...

Madison is visiting us over the Christmas break from school and that means it's the season for some serious, concentrated, fit as much in as we can, family time.  It's different being all together again and seems to take a bit of time to adjust, but I think we're all used to each other at this point.  Her first full day home was spent recovering from almost twenty-four straight hours of travel. And we managed to fit in a sisters photo shoot in there as well. It's been almost three years since we've had pictures of these beauties taken so it was certainly time for an update. My sweet friend Heather is a photographer and she gave us some time that afternoon, even though the movers were coming to pack her family out the very next day. We're all very happy with the photographs she captured for us.  There's nothing like sisters happy to be together again after a year apart! The next day we headed out to see the new Star Wars movie. Madison, Emily...

This Christmas will be different because Jared won't be here with us. It's the only time he's not been home on Christmas morning during our marriage. That's not the norm for most military families, particularly not families of cops who have been in the military for twenty-one years.  I was talking about it with a friend today and I realized that he's only missed two anniversaries, my birthday once, and three kid's birthdays in all those years. We've been blessed to be together as a family for almost every important day.  Since Christmas is traditionally a time for families to be together, not apart, I'm finding myself thinking of Jared even more than usual. Specifically, I've been thinking about all the things that make Jared the best husband ever. I'm particularly grateful for Jared because of his patient and gentle temperament. He's not mean, harsh, or short-tempered at home even though he's this tough, alpha male, law enforcement, b...

Our sweet youngest child recently celebrated her eleventh birthday with a trip to Sicily to see her favorite guy in the world - her daddy! We had to be to the airport for an early morning flight so we were up and out of bed that morning at 4 a.m. and watched the sunrise from 30,000 feet. We left icy roads and snowy parking lots here in England for sunshine and sixty degree weather in Sicily.  Natalie is a champ and such a good traveling companion. She doesn't complain about lines, or crowds, or early wake up calls, or airplane seats that don't recline (thanks EasyJet!), or Krispy Kreme for breakfast. She has also never met a stranger so we had lots of conversations with all sorts of people. We made it to Sicily right on time and Jared was waiting for us outside the baggage claim. I missed their happy reunion because I was waiting on our checked bag but I'm sure it was sweet as this girl loves her daddy. We headed to downtown Catania for lunch where Natalie learn...