k-strat: Christmas

While Christmas in Williamsburg wasn't the "same" as in the past, we held on to as many of our traditions as we could. It was quite warm on Christmas Eve, so we walked around Colonial Williamsburg enjoying all the decor. I love looking at the creative wreaths they make every year.

We went to church that afternoon. It was outside, and while we finished up the candlelight portion of the service, dusk fell, and so did the rain! We were under the portico but the wind howled and it was different and special in its own way.

We came home and had dinner with Uncle Benny, Antelope, and Bonnie, and then the kids had hot chocolate for a treat. I completely forgot to get a group picture, but I think at least Lauren got one of the cousins on Christmas Eve.

We changed into our jammies and took a pyramid picture. The kids also got to open a gift.

Obviously there was a lot of excitement, very, very early the next morning! Jane didn't even make it to the stairs before changing into her Christmas dress for the day.

We opened stockings...

Had some cinnamon rolls, and opened presents... The girls got American Girl dolls for Christmas this year - our old ones, and an entire box of clothes that Grammy made for Lauren and I (we divided them up months ago) for the dolls to wear.

My favorite gift though, was the one Eleanor gave Jane. She spent two weeks sewing her some mittens for Christmas. It was so sweet!

We had a very relaxing morning before we headed up to Chris's parents house. His entire family was there! We saw snow on the way up!

We hung around the house a bit and then I took a walk with some of the kids and Ashleigh and Jessie. Rosie fell asleep on the way home because she was so exhausted from a busy Christmas morning.

The twins were sleeping in the closet on the floor and took some decent naps.

We got to walk down to the neighbor's house to see their train set up. It was Ben's dream. It was quite hard to pull him away.

We also had a delicious dinner that Jane helped with.

We also went in the hot tub...something I haven't done in years!

This was the first time this entire family had been together, because the last time the whole group was together Tessa hadn't been born yet. It was a momentous occasion, so pictures were taken.

Whole group:

Our family:

The cousins:

Grandparents with their cousins:

The siblings:

We had a great time catching up with everyone and spending some relaxing time together sitting around before heading back home into our own beds when the weekend was over! After all the family left their house, Chris's parents came down for a brief trip to Williamsburg to stay at the Winery and we joined them for a walk in CW.

We had a laid back week at home without a whole lot going on and then my family came down to celebrate! They had already done their own thing on Christmas while we were at the Strattons, but we were excited that everyone could make it work to get together at a later time even for a short visit. The kids were eagerly anticipating their arrival, counting down the days, and then hours. Grandma and Dave brought their dog down with them so they were staying at my sister's house (who is more of a pet person and doesn't have allergies). Thankfully they came over for the evening first so the kids could see them - they had been so anxious all day! We took a walk with the dog, and then headed home to eat pizza and play games.

The next morning I made some breakfast and we exchanged Christmas gifts.

The cousins:

The kids all enjoyed playing together and this year, Eleanor made Bonnie a heart-shaped pillow that she had sewed by hand. She worked so hard on her gifts this year!

Grandma made Ben a hat and Rosie ear warmers so they could match the big girls.

And the kids helped make Grandma and Dave a calendar. (I'm making it seem like we had a "homemade Christmas" - we did not.) The big hit ended up being hot wheels car tracks - all the kids (and many adults) ended up building tracks to race cars on up in the bonus room!