Week of Celebrations!

We sure have enjoyed this last week or two of celebrating.  Julia was elated to have Matt join her for lunch at school as an early birthday celebration.  She wore two party hats all day in anticipation and had Matt bring one to wear as well.

The weekend before Christmas we went down to celebrate with my family.  We spent the afternoon talking and playing, then the kids did a little Christmas trivia game my mom had made.  Then it was time for dinner and we ended with exchanging gifts--we drew names and each person has their moment to give their gift to the recipient while all watch.  There are mandatory hugs and pictures as well.  :)  We stayed another day and had more relaxing family time and good food.

On Christmas Eve, we brought back our old tradition with Matt's sister Kim's family of doing cookie decorating and ornament making together.  The kids are a lot older than when we used to do this, but it's so nice to spend time together and they all seemed to enjoy it.  We ended the night with our church's Christmas Eve service and driving around to look at lights.

Christmas Day was great.  We slept till 7, had a nice breakfast, caught up on our last week of devotions, and opened gifts, which the kids were thrilled with.  Each got something they had really wanted...Gray got a bike that is not midget sized.  He had been hunched over his tiny one this year and now he looks way too old on his new one. He also got some cool basketball shoes and a game I made for him that is a personalized version of one we played with friends this summer.

Julia got a kid camera.  She was over the moon for this gift and has taken tons of pics. She also got some American Girl doll clothes (of mine when I was a kid) and some clothes to wear.

And Joshua got the precious iPod.  We had deliberated about letting him have his own device and finally decided he could handle this, since he is pretty responsible.  It will also be nice for him to be able to text me when I leave the kids home every now and then.  We gave him a frisbee, a coat, and then his 3rd gift was a big wolf blanket.  He did not have a breakdown or anything, though he later said he was definitely disappointed.  He just smiled at the blanket and then we had him open it to get a good look at the design...and there was the iPod.  He grinned nonstop after that.  He has enjoyed texting with his friends and often gives me updates on what messages he is getting, what time he got them, the battery power remaining on his device, etc.  :)

And Allie liked her stuff too- her plasma car and magnetic blocks and cd were more of a hit with the big kids though!  She loved her baby food and key rings.  After she opened one gift, she got the idea and kept saying, "Mo box?!"

We enjoyed playing some of the new games during Allie's nap and then spent the evening with Matt's family, eating dinner and exchanging gifts.

We had a few days of downtime--playing, cleaning, running errands, etc.  I had a not so terrible trip to Target with all four kids.  I even made a return and tried on clothes!  Couldn't believe it worked.  They did have some shenanigans with the cart, but not fighting and no fits, so I was happy!

Then we began celebrating Julia's birthday.  We had a dinner out with Matt's parents eating her beloved Chinese food.  The morning of her birthday, we had a special breakfast, let Julia open presents, and later headed to Asheville to celebrate my cousin's marriage to his lovely bride.  They live in South Korea so it was very special to get to see him and meet her.  It was so much fun to be with my adult family members (kids got to hang together with a babysitter), particularly my cousin and her husband who live in London.  It's so neat to have an international family, but the downside is that our times together are few and far between.  We tried to live it up last night and make the best of our evening together.  I'm so glad we all got to be there!  We spent the night with Jeannie and fam and headed back home the next day.

Our Christmas break is wrapping up and our thoughts are turning to school, sports, work, etc.  I'm sad to see it go for sure.  It's been a good (albeit busy and not without it's challenging parenting moments) holiday season and we have a lot to look forward to in 2018.  Happy New Year!