christmas

I love Christmas and I love memories of Christmas growing up....the morning excitement of seeing what Santa brought, being surrounded by family, listening to holiday music all day, watching "It's a Wonderful Life," and HUGE dinners.  Being so far from family and not being able to get home for Christmas means holidays are a much more quiet.  While I also enjoy a quite holiday, I still LOVE being surrounded by family during such a special time of the year.  This year, we were spoiled and my family came join us for the special holiday!  And even more fun...our holiday was spread over several days (due to all the various travel and work schedules).
My brother, Sean, arrived first on the 20th, then my parents on the 23rd, and lastly my "baby" brother, Ryan, on the 26th!  Talk about a full house!!!  IT WAS WONDERFUL!  We made cookies, went on walks, read books, played games, did projects, sang songs, watched movies, went to mass, ate too much....and that doesn't even include our "Christmas"!

On the evening of the 26th, Bryce and Zoey had their first "sleep over" away from the house!!!  They went with Mimi and Papa to the hotel while we all set up for Christmas.  The next morning Bryce and Zoey were SO excited when they got back to the house to tell us about the hotel and see what Santa brought.  They were surprised by an indoor trampoline, character dolls (toy story and frozen), books, "How to Train Your Dragon 2", new shirts, and a stocking each! 

When it came to opening gifts our family tradition of starting with the youngest and going one at a time to the oldest and repeating til the gifts have all been opened quickly was pushed to the side with these two excited three year olds.  They were so excited to open gifts...it didn't matter whose they were!  When it came to their gifts they took the time to play with each new toy, try on each new outfit, or try to put every puzzle together. It was so much fun to watch how excited they got about each item and watch the joy in their eyes.  I will not say it was a fast process, quite opposite actually, but it was so much fun!  Everyone was spoiled with so many fun things...we had everything under that tree to include a plunger, t-shirts, beer jelly, pottery, photography cards, tools, camera equipment, sheets, and a smoker!!!

It was wonderful to have everyone here with us and enjoy such a fun week!

Zoey and Bryce keep asking if it is time to put the tree back up so they can come back.  We are looking forward to next year when we can hopefully all be together for Christmas again!
.katherine.