White Christmas

For the first time in 17 years, Dave spent Christmas with his Mom, Stepdad and siblings (well, minus one who lives in Arizona).  And even better yet it was a white Christmas - as in snow on the ground, it didn't snow that day.

Of course the first thing Drew wants to do is open presents, unfortunately we made him wait until everyone woke up.  He was really patient though.
 

He was so excited to see some of his presents - here he was opening up one of his two stockings...





And then another present... here's the video..  What he says cracks me up.


Of course the present he loved the most was the iTouch (our recycled phone turned iTouch).

After a while Drew got to play outside in the white stuff...

And Grandpa built a bonfire! 

I came out to join the fun (notice the box of tissues I'm carrying).  I ended up getting sick for 3 days about 2 hours after this photo.

Aunt Brianna and Drew..

Daddy and Aunt Brianna

Me and Brianna

The temperature was dropping quickly, so we went inside for dinner. 

This was the last fresh air I had for days.  Getting sick on vacation blows.

Children's Christmas Service

Yes I do realize it's the end of January, but I have yet to finish sharing about the Christmas season at our house - things have been rather busy.

The Sunday before Christmas, Drew performed in the annual Children's Service at our church.  In the past he's been an angel, a pig and a cow.  This year he's a.....

... Star!

And here are some of the other stars of the show - many are PreK/K, but there are a couple of First graders in the mix.

And here is a video of Drew's procession...





They did do a few songs - here is a photo of the kids doing "Away in a Manger"

And then here is a video one of Drew's "speaking" parts (yes it was a group speaking part this year).




Drew wasn't so thrilled about the costume this year - it was kind of warm and not really comfortable.  His favorite part of the night?  Dinner and dessert afterward.

It's a California Christmas

This year we had two Christmases - one in California and one in New York with Dave's family.  I'll get to the New York Christmas in a different post, but first let me share with you Christmas at Grammy and GrampC's the weekend before the actual holiday.

I should preface we always have multiple Christmases - we just rotate who has the "actual" holiday between Dave's family and mine.  Since Thanksgiving was with my family this year, the actual Christmas holiday is with Dave's Family - and he has to determine which side (Mom or Dad) we visit.

This year we had a pretty full house for my family's Christmas.  My brother and his family, My sister with her girls (her husband couldn't make it), the three of us, my parents, plus GG.

Here are the youngest in the family...

L-R: Avery (my brother's Daughter) and Chloe (my sister's daughter)

And then we decided to get all of the cousins together...

L-R: Matt's girls - Adrina & Avery, Lisa's girls - Chloe & Kady, and then Drew

Here is the tree and a few of the stockings - which were scattered throughout the house (there are too many of us now to have in one location).

It was kind of nice this year we weren't throwing up presents like in previous years.  We drew name for the "Grownups" and then we of course all gave gifts to the kids.  In years past there were easily 3 times the amount of gifts you see here.

I had some reading time with Miss Avery - We were reading "Up on the Housetop"

She loved my book and my singing voice of course....

And Rana my sister-in-law with Adrina.

After a bit the kids were starting to get antsy so we decided to let them open stockings.  Here Adrina is helping Avery with hers...

Kady and Drew were chasing after Chloe to give her the contents of her stocking.   Chloe pulled out some food and then proceeded to run through the house only wanting to open and eat what was inside.

Drew cracked us up with how excited and appreciative he was with everything inside his stocking....

... including the Star Wars/Yoda Ornament.

Dave was pretty excited about his stocking contents too...

...notice the "PG-13" rated wine stop.  It pairs so well with his "naughty" wine glass.  (I have the "nice" wine glass to complement his).

For dinner we enjoyed some Prime Rib.  Miss Avery had her "ribs" for dessert.

After dinner Adrina read to us the story of Jesus' birth from the bible.  Drew didn't want to read this year.

And Kady put baby Jesus in the manger.

Chloe was just happy after she woke from her nap - it was quite the "gift".

And of  course we had to have a family shot....

One of the many highlights of the night was the 2nd annual polar plunge - Dave was able to join my brother for a dip in the pool this year (he was sick last year).  Here's the video:



If you look closely you will see the guys give a high-five before hitting the water. They were quite proud of that high-five.