I raced to the ferry after getting off work an hour earlier than I was scheduled, Kevin picked me up and we headed to his parents house to spend Christmas Eve with his parents, brothers, sister-in-law, and our niece and nephew, Corbin and Eliza!
After a delicious dinner of lasagna, and some playing and reading with the little ones, it was a pretty early bedtime for me! But I woke feeling pretty refreshed and ready to see what Santa had brought everyone! Corbin was so excited the night before, I don't think he slept much, so he ended up staying in bed later than me, probably a first! He even thought he saw Santa and his reindeer flying around the house at 10pm, and was very worried that he wasn't going to stop there! Funny little guy!
We did stocking stuffers for each other, as is our newish tradition when we spend the holiday with the S family. We also do a gift exchange, which is really nice because we get to focus on getting a present for one person that they will really be happy with, and focus on what the holiday is really about for us, spending time with our wonderful family! C and E had a great time looking through their stockings, and were beyond thrilled that Santa brought a Batman Cave for Corbin and a baby doll for Ellie! They are pretty lucky kids!
Ellie got two baby dolls, which is pretty much the best thing ever. She had been wandering around the house the night before with a picture book about babies clutched to her chest, and every once in awhile would say "baby" in her sweet little 1 year old voice! We were pretty excited that we got her a doll that she will love on for the next couple years! When she opened the second baby from us, she was shaking and quivering with excitement!
Eliza getting ready to open her stocking
Corbin has the hang of it this year!
Eliza and Aunt May May work on her stocking together!
Corbin has caught on the fact that stocking candy can
be eaten right away, even at 8:30 in the morning!
This girl dances up a storm! It's wonderful!
Uncle Neal and Corbin cheesing it up!
Opening the baby doll and Batman Cave!
Ellie is already a model mommy to her baby doll :)
After all the excitement was over, we headed to see my family down the road for the rest of the day! I was really excited for this Christmas, as it is the first year that we successfully managed a gift exchange between all members of the family! As our immediate family has grown in size, so has the desire to cut back on getting quite so many presents, and Kevin and I also wanted to devote more of our gifting on the niece and nephews. Everyone in my family got on board, and while it wasn't the favorite way of doing Christmas for everyone, I appreciated the effort made by everyone! Thanks for putting up with my idea, guys!
Uncle Chris definitely won the big "wow" present for Jackson! He got him a remote control backhoe digger thing, which lights up and plays music and the shovel moves up and down! Jack was beyond excited, which is saying something for this kid. He wasn't even remotely interested in his presents til CT opened this one with him!
Jack got lots of great presents, including this fun Darth Vader flashlight and light saber! Cool! :)
I had such a great time visiting with my family, both sides! I wish my weekend with them had been longer, but it was off to the 5:20am ferry on Monday morning to get back to those pesky books! I have since come down with a cold, not surprisingly given the how crazy stressed I've been! So tonight I am resting up, and probably going to be down for the count tomorrow. Hope your holiday was wonderful! Onto the New Year!
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