It's Time!!!!

Kyle and I were up and at 'em early this morning, packing up the hotel room and knocking on Lady & Grumps' front door by 6:30am. The kids were up not too long after we'd started sipping our fresh squeezed orange juice and the morning round of present opening began. We headed to Keaton Christmas at Aunt Ann's, Majewski Christmas at my Aunt Joanne's and then finished out the day in our traditional fashion in Fremont

to join forces with this crazy crew! It was a busy but very fun Christmas day, hard to believe Christmas 2016 is in the books! Now for a week of relaxing!

The Day & Night Before Christmas

Not your typical Christmas Eve activity but the kids and Kyle had fun in the water that was a bit too chilly for my liking! Not only was the swim fun but it also helped to set Nora up for a nice Christmas Eve nap - Lincoln wasn't nearly as interested!

After nap it was time to get dressed and ready for church - which we once again made it to on time! The kid's service was a lot of fun with tons of laughs! Hank went a little rogue during children's church and entertained everyone there! We took some pictures after church then headed back to lady & grumps' house for our traditional Christmas dinner and managed to take some cute group pictures too! We had fun opening a few presents and after some Christmas stories and jammies we snuggled the tired kiddos into their beds! Big day tomorrow!!
Fa lalalala lalalala

Finish the Trip, Start the Celebration

We successfully slept (barebones) in the hotel last night and this is the view I woke up to this morning. At first I was pretty confused, until I figured out where Lincoln was actually located. As hoped we got on the road in good time and made it all the way to Westlake without needing to stop! Woohoo!

The afternoon looked a little like this, with breaks for kid naps here and there and some eve of the eve prep thrown in. Before the party started though, there was work to be done!

The wagon was loaded with littles and with 2 preschooler power we set out on our Pumpkin Rolling tour of the neighborhood. We've altered the tradition a bit, but found it to be a successful variation and completed our mission just in time for The Eve of The Eve Keg Tapping Pajama Gathering! The holidays are here!!
Fa lalalala lalala

No Place Like Home

If we ever get there! These two road warriors did their best today but it wasn't our most efficient road trip showing! With a later than hoped for start this morning and more stops than we usually make in an entire trip taken before we were out of South Carolina it became pretty clear at the point that we'd put in 15 hours and only reached Marietta at midnight that we needed to call it quits. Things were made even more interesting by Nora's creatively defiant behavior after an offered bathroom stop in S.C. Anyway, here we are at the Red Roof in, bunked down for a quick and hopefully hard night's sleep with plans to get up, at 'em and finish this trip out tomorrow morning! We're coming - just not as fast as we usually do!

Happy Break!!

What better way is there to kick off Christmas break than by sharing a little Jeremiah's after school!? It was pajama day for Nora today, and after picking her up, she informed me that she figured I was going to take her for ice cream...she figured right. With a stop at "the orange store" already scheduled it only seemed appropriate to stop across the street for a sweet treat first! They were in school up to the wire so now it's crunch time to get packed up and ready to head North for all of the annual celebrations! I'm feeling pretty good about our prep this year but we won't really know how everything is coming together until we get to "The North Pole" to take inventory!!

Just a Little Christmas

While I'm thrilled not to be in the 0˚ weather in the North right now, I must admit, running last minute Christmas errands while it's THIS hot on December 19th is a little over the top!! Gathering is well underway and tonight we had our family Christmas. Lincoln was thrilled with his pop book, Lincoln sized lawn chair, new lawn mower from Nora & his kazoo while Nora seemed genuinely surprised, albeit somewhat confused by her two new suitcases (THERE'S ONE FOR LINCOLN!) Kyle was THOROUGHLY entertained by the Piggie & Elephant book that Nora got for him. I always like this night, and while it's always a bit of rush getting everything ready for it, and of course it never turns out just right, it's a day when Kyle usually gets home early, we have a nice dinner and spend time giving to each other. A nice chance to slow down before everything speeds up even more!
Fa lalalala la

Daddy

Sometimes you just need a post-nap snuggle with daddy. We enjoyed a rare prolonged double nap session this afternoon. While it allowed us some time for R&R it concluded with two snuggly kiddos who just wanted to curl up on their daddy's lap. With a busy week ahead who can blame them for wanting to lay low for just a little longer!