The 8 hour drive was much shorter than our last Christmas drive (25 hours from Houston), but still awful. I'm not sure how I'm able to make the drive by myself with the kids and be fine, but when we take Mike with us, all bets are off. Maybe the kids just like to see Mike anxious and are worse for him, or maybe I can just tune them out easier. Either way, we were SO glad to get to my parents' house.
Morgan's had plans to fly out to California for Christmas, so we celebrated an early Christmas with them on the 23rd. Lily wasn't feeling 100% so Nana got blessed with lots of snuggles :)
It was fun to Skype with Mike's brother and sister-in-law as well. They are in Cambodia with the Peace Corps, so the kids don't get to see them very often. We made a Buche de Noel (no picture but it was fantastic!), lined up on the stairs,
opened presents (James didn't quite understand, and kept trying to put his presents back in their wrapping),
and got an egg from the chickens.
On Christmas Eve, the boys (Mike, my dad, and Matt, my brother-in-law) kept up our family tradition of going shooting.
They had more than enough guns and ammo between them.
Christmas morning for us was very relaxed. Lynsey and Matt had spent the night with his family, so we told Lily we wouldn't open presents until they got home. We went to church at 9,
then came home for a nap. Lily had to be reminded several times "Presents after Aunt Lynsey and Uncle Matt get home". The second they walked through the front door, she attacked the presents! It was hilarious. She didn't know who's presents she was opening, nor did she care. She just knew they were home and she was free!! We hurried and sorted the gifts and set the kids loose.
This was really the first year that Lily understood what was going on, and she loved it. I have the BEST husband who got me a fantastic camera!
I'm so excited to learn how to use it!
The next day we went down to a park in Centerville and let the kids run through the city's light display. It was my first big photo-shoot with my new camera.
And now, random pictures from the rest of our trip:
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