Christmastime

We went light looking in our city at a crazy crowded neighborhood that has awards and themes for their lights.  I was warned that it was crowded, but I thought, "Who cares if you're crawling along when there's cool lights to look at?"  Boy, was I wrong.  We had to bail after sitting still for an hour in the line of cars.  I just kept thinking, "How can people even live here when they surely can't get into their neighborhood after work?"  Anyway, it wasn't a total wash because we went off on the lesser popular side streets and still saw many award winners and lots of very cool lights.  

We also continued our tradition of making REAL hot chocolate and putting it in thermoses until we got to the lights.  Then I poured the drinks into disposable coffee cups with lids.  I also put marshmallows in them this year.  It was dark when I was pouring and apparently I was dropping marshmallows everywhere.  Several ended up stuck to the bottom of my pants by the end of the long evening of making memories.

Here's my one terrible shot of the evening.  Oh yeah, they also brought their candy canes from St.
Nicholas Day.

For Christmas, we went to my parent's house.  On Christmas Eve, we got all dressed up and headed out to Midnight Mass after playing cards all day.

This guy is almost as tall as me, keeping right up with Genevieve's giant growth spurt this year.

It was a very late night and so we slept in a little bit on Christmas Day.  We had pancakes that my dad made in the morning and then opened presents.

The day after Christmas my sister and her kids arrived.  Then we went over to my uncle's house to have dinner.  We also went Christmas light looking again after dinner before going back to my parent's house because there is a fancy neighborhood near my uncle that has really good lights and decorations.  We went in our big van and had Mimi and my sister and her two kids with us.  It was another late night and my little people were starting to get cranky by Sunday.

Sunday, we were blessed to have a very tiny outdoor gathering of just one of my cousins and his wife and son with my aunt and uncle.  The picture may look like it was a big gathering, but most of us in the picture were already staying under the same roof.   :)  It was the first time I got to meet my cousin's son, and he was so very precious!

The following morning, we drove home because we had a very special visitor coming.  Godfather Brian!  We had really grown accustomed to seeing him often and since moving back to the states it has become a rare occasion that we are blessed with a visit from him.  Anyway, we opened our presents to each other when we returned home.

The boys got these sumo wrestler suits for the trampoline.  Unfortunately, as I feared, they didn't last long.