Christmas Time Is Here Again

Merry Christmas one and all!!


It's been a quiet and low key holiday here in the 'ville.  It started a week ago with a surprise trip taking the kids to see the Hobbit 3D.  3 hours long and they were completely entranced.  Jeff can't wait to see the next one.  I think he'll have to wait at least a year.

Biggest down side, was that same day, Meghan started feeling icky.  2 days later, and one fainting spell resulted in a trip to the ER and a bag of IV fluids.  A little medicine and 2 more days and she was feeling much better.  Unfortunately she missed out on the Christmas pageant at church (where Erin had a solo singing The First Noel) and finishing up Christmas shopping.  But by Christmas day everything was hunky dory.  And magically both kids and Tom still healthy.

Pageant Ready

Christmas Eve day, did provide the first magic of the season.  We woke to a mid-morning snow fall.  The snow came down for about 2 hours.  A whole range of snow from little tiny icy flakes to huge soft ones.  All was gone by afternoon, but the magic of watching it fall was completely worth it.

Catching Flakes

The kids work early, but not too early.  They were excited to head downstairs and explore what Santa had left them.  Our general rule is that stockings can be opened before breakfast and then we open gifts after breakfast.

Gift opening was wonderfully relaxing.  We all took our time.  Kids enjoyed a toy as they opened it.  Everything got its time.  The big hits of the morning were the Lego sets  -- several Lego friends sets for Erin and the Hobbit hole set for Jeffrey. There were also several games, some gift cards, gloves, hats and slippers that all were immediately donned as well.  Santa brought alarm clocks that dock with their iPods so bedtime was even enjoyed.

Stompeez!!

 

Legos!

 The rest of the day was spent building Lego sets, playing games, watching movies and just relaxing.  We had steaks on the grill for dinner with potatoes and roasted Brussels sprouts.  Cookies for dessert.

Yum!

Thursday we packed up and headed to DC for a day.  Tom, Jeff and Uncle Jon played a long came of LoTR cards while Erin played with her Oma.  We had a second Christmas there where we discovered more Legos, a new Wii game (LoTR Lego) for Jeff and Erin got her first Kindle and a new book from her Noni.

Silly, Uncle Jon

 

Our nice quiet Christmas is just what we all needed during this busy month.  Now that the flu has left the house and we're all feeling up to par, it's just about time to head back to school and work.  Hopefully rejuvenated and energized  for 2013.