Christmas Recap

We've been enjoying our time off and time together so much that I haven't really had time for this place. Yesterday was a partial return to normal, the kids' preschool has resumed, so I have some time now to sit and download the thousands of Christmas pictures we took and catch up here.

Our Christmas started off with Christmas Eve at the Children's Creche service where *A* was asked to bring Joseph down the aisle. Then we headed to our friends' house where we enjoyed a yummy dinner and each other's company despite losing electricity (yay for lots of candles)! We headed home opened new jammies and quickly went to bed so Santa could get things ready.

We spent a leisurely Christmas morning at our house opening gifts and playing with new toys. I'm not really sure at what point (H) lost his jammies but this seems to be the norm with him lately. He loves to strip down to his undies and proclaim "I'm Maked Boy!"



Anywho, we headed to Atlanta just as it was starting to snow, it was very pretty but not sticking, so we weren't too worried about missing a white Christmas. We had a nice time relaxing, eating, and opening gifts with my family and the hugs were plentiful.






Then we headed to Josh's parents' for Christmas #3 with his family. More presents, hanging out, good food, Night at the Museum 2, and fun. The cousins loved having so much time together to play and they shared each other's new gifts quite well. Even my nephew's highly popular Nintendo DSi was shared around (with only a few quibbles about who's turn it was).





Then we went back to my mom's house to spend an afternoon visiting with my extended family.

I love seeing my kids play with the same cousins I grew up with, although it still weirds me out that they are in their 20's now. I also love the way they are with my great-aunt. They don't have many family members from that generation left and when I see them together it reminds me of how much I loved being with my great-grandmother as a child.
To end our whirlwind trip, we met up with some old middle school and high school friends and let our kids play while we caught up on each other's lives. With a full car and full tummies, we headed back to the mountain and proceeded to lay around in jammies and unpack slowly. And here we are, slowly returning to normal. Slowly, slowly...