Christmas and New Years

We had a nice Christmas and New Years. We decided (for the first time ever, I think) to host Josh's family for Christmas Eve, which allowed us to stay home and not travel which was great for us, even if we did have to cook and clean. We also had the festivities much earlier in the day (lunchtime versus late afternoon), which allowed for a much more relaxed and not rushed rest of the day. By late afternoon, everyone could then go their separate ways - we wanted to go to an evening service and Josh's family would need to travel to go to a later evening service, so it worked out! We just may need to repeat that again next year. It's nice to have a bigger kitchen and entry room that allows us to do that!

That night, Santa came! ;)

We got up and opened our own presents first. Thankfully, the kids actually slept in until 7am!

In his new chair for reading

Looking at a book

Lots of Legos!

Lego chess

Inheriting brother's bike

Working on balance on the new bike

We went to my parents house to open gifts with the rest of my family (and have lunch) the rest of the day. We saved one present for last...

This is a book that Preston got. There was also a snow globe that had tall NY buildings and the Statue of Liberty in it, as well as a book about the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We also wrapped a toy plane and an actual apple (in reference to The Big Apple)...as, we told the boys we are planning a trip to New York for Thanksgiving this upcoming year! (naturally, to see the parade) Josh and I have been talking about it since October, and sort of smiled to ourselves in November when we watched the parade together. Nothing has been officially booked yet but hopefully in the Spring we can start.

Nathan has been saying for awhile how he would like to see the Statue of Liberty. I knew I wanted to take the boys to NY sometime, and it's been on my bucket list to see the Thanksgiving Parade in person sometime. So excited. Still a ways away, but we knew the boys would be happy to have a trip to look forward to at least.

The boys spent a good portion of Winter Break playing with all their new things.

We decided to keep New Years Eve low key and made fondue at home. Josh and I attempted to stay up until midnight but unfortunately sleep got the better of us.

Mister New Year!

Fondue table

So we had a great Christmas and New Year....January perhaps not so much so far! More on that in Preston's 3/4 month update!