Christmas - part 2

My family decided to celebrate Christmas Eve on Christmas and Christmas Day on Boxing Day. We got over to my family's house in the early afternoon on our Christmas Eve. We did our traditional pizza for Christmas Eve following the California family tradition.

Eleanor also put out cookies for Santa that evening and this time understood a little better that he was supposed to come and eat them. That didn't stop her from grabbing one of her own to eat, though.

We also did our annual Christmas pyramid...it's growing!

Christmas morning was lots of fun! We had a relaxing morning of family time, eating delicious cinnamon rolls, and opening gifts. Eleanor got her very own kitchen and figured out how to use a selfie stick! Eric got a drone, and we played with that for days.

I made an apple pie for our Christmas dinner. We had a prime rib roast, which was delicious.

We took a family walk one afternoon around Morven Park that included playing frisbee along the way.

Otherwise, we had lots of family time together, including game playing (Lauren got a new one called Sheriff of Nottingham), bath times, and card playing. Eleanor spent much of her last afternoon in northern Virginia (and the days since then) wearing a dress up dress that Grandma got her at a second-hand store!

We had a great time in northern Virginia with family, and as always, it was bittersweet to leave. We love our home and our community here, but we love time with our family, too. Eleanor was glad to be back in her own bed (as were we), and I was glad to have access to Jane's swing and bumbo after a week of not really being able to set her down anywhere! We are always sad to leave though and look forward to more memories with family in 2016...