Fourth Christmas

The Saturday after Christmas, we headed to Clifton for the annual family Christmas party which includes my Stepdad's Mom, his siblings and their families.  Its a huge group of us, and we have a blast.  Its full of kids, food, gifts, and fun, and one last opportunity to celebrate the holiday.

 

Christmas Day/Minute to Win It!

After a lovely, relaxing Christmas morning and bellies full of french toast, we headed to my Mom and Robby's for our afternoon of gifts and dinner.   This year we added a fun twist on the day - Minute To Win It party games.  Hilarious! A new holiday tradition was born.  We laughed so hard!

It was really great to take the focus off of gift opening and spend time laughing and enjoying each others' company.

So lucky to have a family who loves to have fun!

My Mom's tree, always beautiful.

The gift frenzy...

 

 



Minute to Win It - Pantyhose Head, it was the favorite game!

 



Cotton Ball Nose Game

 



 

Marshmallow Bucket Head

Feliz Navidad 2011

I'm slowly coming out of a Christmas fog.  After the emotional days spent honoring John's life, and then catapulting into two full days of Christmas festivities, the fog is slowly lifting.  What just happened?

We had a lovely Christmas, and it truly got off to an unique start.  On Christmas morning, I woke to a quiet house around 7 am, and thought "Ahhh, let me get a shower before madness ensues."  While in the shower, Dylan busts into the bathroom to inform me Logan was downstairs ripping open presents, all by himself.  "Whaaaaaaa???".  I grabbed a towel, bolted downstairs and sure enough a super overly excited Logan just couldn't wait, and decided to have his own personal Christmas.

It was certainly a different start to our Christimas morning than I had anticipated.  But after recovering from the shock of it all, we settled into a cozy morning of gift opening, toy playing, breakfast eating and preparations for the journey to Grandma's for Christmas, Part Three.

Part One was spent on Christmas Eve at my brother and Jessica's, for Christmas with my Dad and Stepmom.  The kids always enjoy eating lots of yummy food and opening the first round of presents.  And how lucky are we every year that we get to celebrate Christmas three times?

The boys love leaving cookies for Santa, after sprinkling reindeer food out front!

One last note of the season from Tyler, our Elf:

Our tree, adorned with loot, before we settled in for a long winters' nap

aftermath

Mom and Robby's tree, before gift opening

Maya and Josh, looking very tall

My Mom holding our newest family member, Baby Violet



my gorgeous stepsisters

And, no Christmas is complete without a dance party, and a game of Headbandz!

Boo!

Its always a little sad to see Halloween come and go.  However, this year its a little easier to move on, since we leave for Disney World in four days!   We had a great Halloween weekend though, and when the boys aren't looking I'll be stealing all Almond Joys and Snickers!

Look at this fun scary dip my neighbor made!

 Jackpot!

Labor Day Weekend

It was time for a little road trip this past weekend, to spend some time with Grandpa Joe, Grandma Bobbie, Uncle Chris, Aunt Jessica, and cousins Josh and Maya.  A great weekend filled with boating, beach time, swimming, a crab feast, and a birthday celebration for Grandma.

Aunt Jessica and Maya, ready for a boat ride

The little island we go to, only accessible by boat. The landscape there really change quite a bit from July 4th weekend, due to Hurricane Irene last weekend.

The boys made Grandma garden stones for her birthday.