Tis' the Season
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
We have had a wonderful Holiday this year. This will be one massive post, sorry. To start, Adam never got a "First Christmas" ornament last year so I decided to make him a special one, just for him, this year. I made him a Peanut ornament, because he is nicknamed Peanut! Here are the results.
Next is a picture of the kids all dressed up in their Christmas outfits for church. I was a little sad to find out that Jonathan is no longer in the toddler/little guy section, he is now in the older boys section. So it was not possible to get all three boys matching outfits. I guess it had to happen sooner or later. Any later and Jonny might refuse to match his darling brothers altogether! Thank you to Maiya and Papa for providing these awesome new outfits! We love them!
After church (December 21) we packed up a couple of suitcases and headed to the Grandparent's house. Cory's brother, Shawn was arriving later in the evening. Of course we stayed up late talking and playing games. Monday was mostly spent shopping. Cory and I also went out to dinner to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. We went to Texas Road House. While we waited to be seated, Cory cracked open a long peanut and discovered that there were 4 small peanuts inside instead of the usual 2. It made us think of our 4 nutty children.
Tuesday December 23, was spent at the Egyptian museum in San Jose. There was quite a bit to see and explore. I think everyone had a good time. Cory and his dad took forever looking at and reading just about everything. If any of us missed something, we could always look at Dad's photos since he took a picture of everything!
Wednesday December 24, was spent mostly hanging out with a little bit of last minute shopping thrown into the mix. Pam made a wonderful Turkey dinner. I actually enjoyed the stuffing! After dinner we continued in family traditions and made ginger bread houses. Megan and Jonathan were really looking forward to this for some time and kept asking me almost everyday when they were going to make them. Just before bed time I let the kids open the present that is from Cory and me. This year I made them pajamas and also a stuffed animal. I made Megan a kitty with a shiny pink skirt, Jonny's was a tropical frog, Ethan's was a Monster (since he's kinda one himself), and Adam's was a monkey. Ethan loved his the moment he saw it and hugged it and fell on it and squished it. Adam decided to show his affection with kisses on his monkey' s face. So cute! After all this we dashed home so that we could get to sleep before Santa came to our house. We were so excited to have Santa come to our new house for the very first time!!!
Thursday December 25, started out around 9 something. When we let the kids go downstairs, they all rushed the living room, none of this one at a time business. There was so much wrapping paper flying around, squeals of delight and excitement in the air. Ethan grabbed the first thing he saw, which was a laser gun, and didn't open anything else for awhile. Adam kept trying to open Ethan's presents, maybe he liked the spiderman wrapping paper instead of Fairly Odd parents paper that his were wrapped in. Megan was super excited that Santa brought her a Tamogatchi toy and Jonathan was really hyped about his new RC mini Helicopter! Cory was happy to receive Tom Clancy's End War game for Xbox. I think I was the most surprised when one of my gifts was a shirt that Cory had picked out and bought! This is significant since he never buys me clothing. He braved his fears and got me a really cute long-sleeved pink shirt by converse. It fits perfect and I love him! After presnets we had our traditional pie for breakfast. I only made two, because our oven is broken and I had to make the crusts the night before at Cory's parents house. For some reason the kids really like Banana pudding pie, leaves more of the Cherry Cream Cheese pie for me!!
Then we had to pack up our stuff and rush back to the Grandparents house before Cory's sister, Christy called from her mission. It was really good to hear from her and felt like good old times. I can't wait for her to come home. She will be home in about 2 1/2 months! We also got to visit with Cory's Aunt Kathy and her husband Fred. Shawn's friend, Kim from Utah, also flew in to stay a couple of days. We enjoyed lots of lovely snacks as well as leftovers from the previous night. After dinner we opened the presents from Grandma and Grandpa and they got to open the ones from us. Shawn also got to open his present from us.
Friday December 26, we went to beautiful Sunol for a hike. The sun was shining and the air was crisp. We all had a great time. Jonny said I love hiking, I didn't know this was hiking, this is fun!
Saturday December 27, we went to the beach. We mostly walked around and explored the mini caves that the water had created out of the cliffs. Adam wasn't so scared to touch the sand this time around, might have been because he was wearing little mittens.
Monday December 29, Pam and I took Megan and Jonathan out to use their scooters that they got from Santa. They begged us to go to a park so we went over to the school that Cory went to when he was a little boy. It wasn't a very good playground, it had no swings and not much to play on. Cory had to go back to work but had a shorter commute from his parents house. After dinner we played games and stayed up late again. We didn't finish playing Monopoly, it was the credit card edition and kinda took a long time to play, oh well maybe next time.
Tuesday December 30, We packed up our things and said our goodbyes to everyone. Shawn and Kim flew out later in the afternoon. The kids were little bummed that they had to leave but were also looking forward to being home again. Megan and Jonny had told Grandma that they were excited to get home and smell our "New House" smell that always is strong when we have been out of the house for awhile. When we got home we found out that our large sucker fish had died while were gone. I don't know if he was getting old and the water was too cold for him or what happened. He has been the hardiest fish we've had and has been here since before we inherited the tank from a friend. All other fish survived.
Wednesday December 31, today we just hung out and played with our toys and new games that we got for Christmas. Cory worked from home, upstairs from the schoolroom. We ordered chinese food for dinner and watched the Never Ending Story. The kids loved the movie and had fun, but were super sad that they had to go to bed before midnight. Megan and Jonny remembered last year when they were allowed to stay up and got to run outside and bang pots and pans together when it switched over to the New Year. Cory and I stayed up and watched a movie and when if finally switched over to the New Year, Cory ran into the garage to get a few fire crackers and lit them off on our back patio. Happy New Year everyone!!
posted by Kristal | 9:02 PM
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