Christmas with family

We were once again blessed to spend some time with our family over the holidays.  The first stop was Susan's on Christmas day.  Judy came down to see us once again and Justin and Meghan and kids were around for Christmas dinner too.  The kids were eager to open more presents, but they also had fun playing with Ariana.  Despite no naps and a long day, we made it through Christmas day, but we had two pretty tired kiddos that night!

We were able to spend a couple nights with Susan and Judy.  It snowed just for us and we had some fun sledding and playing on the icy pond.

Next we headed to my parents for some more Christmas fun.  It was a full house with my brothers and their families and Timothy and Teresa loved it.  Waiting for presents was hard, but playing with cousins was great!  We had lots of great family time.

And of course the cousins did their annual Christmas pageant with Cal joining the cast for the first time.  Timothy was a shepherd and wise one and Teresa was a star and angel.  As always it was good for a lot of laughs and smiles.

We were lucky to have the chance to stay in MN for the week.  We had cousin time, playground time, pool time, a birthday celebration for Timothy.  Needless to say, it was a full and fun week!

Christmas time

We started of our Christmas celebrations at home. Christmas eve day was spent hanging out at home and painting Teresa's room pink.  We went to the Christmas eve service and got all spiffed up.  Teresa was very excited to be in a fancy dress that twirls.  Timothy was not so happy to be dressing up--even though that only meant putting on a red sweatshirt!

A cute family ready for church

A princess in her twirly gown!

Although he might not have been too happy, he did not want to miss a picture by the tree like his sister

After church we had dinner and baths and then it was already bed time.  Troy spent the evening setting up the wiiu console and he and I watched the last few minutes of It's a Wonderful Life.

Both kids were up and ready for Christmas morning fun!  We were done with stockings by a bit after 6 and were having breakfast at 6:30!  Then it was onto some devotions/advent and the presents under the tree.  They were both pretty excited about the things they got.  Teresa loved her big, pink leopard that she had hoped for.

Since Timothy and Teresa were busy with their gifts making bead pictures and jewelry, we held off on the Wiiu.  Once that was discovered, Timothy spent a good deal of the morning playing Mario Kart.

It was a fun family evening and morning.  Although next year, Troy and I hope to do a late dinner on Christmas Eve to take some of the hurry out of the night.