Christmastime 2011

The girls and I headed up to my parents house on the Monday before Christmas with Pat and Sarah.  It was such a treat to spend 6 days up the hill with my family.  Jon had to work and met up with us on Wednesday night.  My Dad had (minor) surgery on Wednesday afternoon, so Jon and my parents drove up in a convoy, in an awful snow storm together.  We had so much fun building puzzles, playing with the girls, baking, cooking, watching movies.  There was a gingerbread castle that was constructed by Pat, Sarah, Lizzie and Dan.  The final decorating was completed by Megan and Sarah.  It turned out beautifully!  It looked like the Candy Land Castle.  The only down part about the trip was the nasty stomach bug that cycled through just about everybody.  I had it first on Sunday, the day before we left.  Then Cecilia got it on Tuesday, then it quickly went on to Pat, Petey, Sarah and Mom.  YUCK!  The good part was that it was a quick bug, and involved throwing up for only a few hours and then a 12-24 hour recovery period.

The storm rolling in over the mountains.  It was eerie!

We celebrated Christmas as a family on Christmas Eve morning. Santa(s) came the night before and filled the stockings and left bunches of gifts under the tree. We were so excited to see Cecilia's reaction when she came up the stairs. She didn't even see all the presents at first, instead she came right to me for a hug. That made me melt :). Then se saw the gifts and she quickly took inventory circling the tree base with a very serious and calculating face. It was adorable. We let here tear into her stocking while every one else woke up. Lilly was less than thrilled about the situation. She just wanted to be held and could care less about her stocking. We opened gifts as a family. Santa spoiled us this year! We got lots of things that were on our list, including new chisels for Jon, a new camera strap and bag for me, clothes for Lilly, and lots of books for Cecilia. The girls also got a tent and tunnel from Santa. It is so much fun!

After the gifts were all opened, I was trying to get everything packed up and Cecilia really wanted to throw the ball for the dogs. Someone found her outside shirtless (because it had gotten spilled on) and with Uncle Pete's shoes on. It was hysterical! She didn't care that it was only about 20 degrees outside, she was having a ball!

We all headed down the hill to Ma and Pa's house for the big Christmas Eve gathering. It was packed! We had over 30 adults and countless little ones. My cousin Keeghan and his girlfriend Amanda were in town, and it was great to see them. My girls had so much fun watching the train at the base of the tree. I adore their matching dresses! I really did try to get a picture of my girls and my family that night. It was terrible though, the pics of the girls aren't even worth posting, and this was the best we got of the family. Ha!

I was so happy to be home and able to spend Christmas morning with just my family. Santa came, of course! Cecilia and Lilly each got a kitchen set from Santa. C was thrilled, Lilly just wanted to be held that early in the morning ( are you seeing a trend here??). We headed of to church first thing, and then came home and opened gifts. I did manage to get a decent picture of the girls together Christmas morning. Cecilia was spoiled this year. What can I say, it was so much fun to shop for her this year! A train set, Magna-Doodle, and block set, were all part of her stash this year. They have all been a hit too :) Lilly was thrilled to play with the paper and other packaging, when we let her. She also got new clothes.

We spent the afternoon and evening with Jon's mom. The girls loves playing with Grandma Cheryl!

And the next evening we spent with Jon's dad.

We feel so blessed this year.  It was wonderful to be able to celebrate with all of our family, and spend some quality time with each of them.  We had such a nice week of celebrating, but I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't pooped by the end of it all. I was definitely ready for some normalcy to return. I loved watching Cecilia experience the magic this year, and I think that next year will be even more exciting for us.