Christmas

This is the first Christmas that I put up the decorations and then took them back down again before Christmas.  Look out Grinch, there's a new killjoy in town!  

But, really, what happened is that Jason got offered a job and the best time for us to pack up the van was right before Christmas.  So, back in the boxes it all went and I consoled the boys with thoughts of all the beautiful decorations at Oma and Opa's house.  And lovely they were.

The move is a story for another very long post, but as background for our Christmas, I'll just say that we loaded up the ABF trailer on December 22nd and then drove up to Virginia on the 23rd.  That drive is supposed to be about 5 hours, but in what was to be a case of extreme foreshadowing, it took over 7 rainy, foggy hours.  But we made it safe and sound and ready to enjoy the holidays.  I took appallingly few pictures given how long it will likely be until we are in VA again, but we spent most of Christmas Eve visiting dear friends in Warrenton and Culpeper.  Then back to Vienna for the big family gathering so the boys could wreak havoc with their cousins and consume lots of food.  Twelve kids make a lot of noise and eat a lot of food.

Finally, everyone else went home and the house quieted down so little (and not so little anymore) boys could go to sleep.  Once again, I got them matching pj's and once again they humored me by wearing them and showing their fakes smiles for the camera in the morning.  Except for Isaac.  He hasn't caught on to the tradition of faking it for Christmas morning pictures.

We had to compromise between the boys' desire to get up and open present as early as possible and Oma and Opa's desire for a reasonable amount of sleep.  Ultimately, I think the show got going around 8:30am.  And the highlight of the day; PRESENTS!

In the afternoon, we headed over to my aunt and uncle's house to visit my cousins and meet all their little ones.  We were lucky to spend lots of time with our Raleigh 2nd cousins, but their were Houston and Bountiful ones to ooh and ahh over.  Four little ones born within four months of each other makes for lots of wiggly kids when you try to take a group picture!

To end the day, we went over to Nana's house where we had a lovely meal and Nana outdid herself with a six layer chocolate cake.

It was a crazy, busy couple of days, but we were glad to see so many friends and family before our trek west.