Christmas 2017

This year, we went home for the holidays.  We stayed with Meemaw and Grandpa for Xmas Eve and then headed over to Grammy and Grumpa's for Xmas day.

But first, we had some small celebrations around our own house.  As usual, Chad and I decorated the house on the night of November 30th, so the kids would wake up to a Xmas house on December 1st.  Lauren and Charlie were so excited to see their individual trees when they woke up!

           

The kids got to go visit Santa Claus.  They both did a wonderful job of letting him know what gifts they were hoping to receive.  I wasn't sure if Charlie would talk, but he did and once he started, he wouldn't stop!  ha ha ha

                               

 Chad did a great job decorating the outside of the house.  I am still holding out hope that those blue lights will die and I can switch up the color scheme, but they are still kicking.  Lauren adores the blue snowflake lights above the garage, so they will be sticking around for a while.

Chad also set up the holiday train set downstairs in the basement.  The kids love watching the trains move, pointing out the different decorations, and loading the logs onto the back of one of the train cars.  Lauren has even become a master train engineer.  She can handle the controls all by herself.

Finally, there was plenty of Gluwein for the adults and the kids made a Gingerbread house.  We had some problems with the roof collapsing and it took extreme patience, but they got it done.  Next year, I need to remember to assemble the house at least an hour or two before the kids want to decorate.  That will definitely save us some frustrations!

           

Back to Christmas!  The night before heading to Salisbury, Chad and I let the kids open up their own gifts.  It did not make sense to bring all of these gifts to be opened and then bring them all back home again after the holidays. 

They were so excited.  Lauren got a walkie talkie set, a fingerling monkey, an Atari set, and Minecraft games on her iPad.  Charlie got transformers, legos, and a fingerling monkey.

On Christmas Eve, we opened stockings (an annual Pali tradition), ate a delicious breakfast, and then began opening presents.  The kids needed a break, so we put them down for naps, and the adults finished up the presents.  Then it was time to get dressed for church.  Meemaw, Grandpa, Aunt B, Lauren, Charlie, Quinnie and I went to Ocean City to attend Pastor Patty's service.  It was beautiful and the boys stayed home to prepare our traditional Xmas Eve dinner of fondue!!  Win Win!!

The next day, we celebrated Christmas at Grammy and Grumpa's house.  The kids woke up, we opened presents, and then we had a little time before everyone else came over for dinner.  I was not feeling well, so I ended up going to bed and missed the entire dinner.  But I hear it was fantastic!  Also, since I wasn't feeling well, I do not have many pictures from Xmas 2017.  

Everyone had a great holiday, but perhaps Lauren's favorite memory was "jamming" in the garage with Uncle Ryan.  She was so excited to get to play the guitar and bang on a DIY drum set Grumpa put together.  They spent hours out there, and she still talks about that experience today.  

Xmas 2017 was certainly memorable.  Although I wasn't feeling very good, it was nice to be home with our family.  It is always very stressful juggle two different family celebrations and to pack everything up and make sure we have a complete Christmas for the kiddos, but it would not be the same without the family and craziness.  So hopefully this is a tradition that we are able to continue!!