Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas holiday. The weekend before, Martin was feeling a little unwell so we took it easy to make sure we were all in top shape for the big day. It was also our first real chance for a couple of days without children or big obligations since the honeymoon. We missed a couple of parties we had wanted to attend, but it was great to just hang out and have some down time to relax.

Christmas Eve
Monday we hit the ground running again - Martin went back to work and I wrapped presents and made pumpkin muffins and broccoli cheese casserole to take for Christmas. He was able to come home early and help finish the wrapping. We got the kids back from Rob that afternoon. They had gotten a Wii for Christmas at his house and were very excited about that. Jake's big boast was beating Daddy at the boxing game. We went to my cousin Joan's house for dinner, then to Tarrytown UMC for Christmas Eve service and home to put out milk and muffins for Santa and some reindeer food (oatmeal and glitter - YUMMY!). I read Christmas stories to the kids while they fell asleep and then we stayed up for a little while wrapping a few more things and getting them ready. The kids had strict orders to stay upstairs until 6AM - a wise mandate from Martin after hearing about last year's 4:30AM start to Christmas morning.

Christmas Day
We awoke on Tuesday morning to the sound of shrieks and pounding feet coming down the stairs. Santa had come to our house. It turns out both our children miraculously escaped the naughty list and we had a new black and red Nintendo DS waiting for Jake and an American Girl bed and accessories for Sydney's AG doll. We opened stockings and presents, then we actually all took a nap (except Jake?) for awhile until Jake woke us up to go to Gran's for their third of four Christmas celebrations. We got to her house at 10, ate some breakfast - lots of yummy sugar cookies - opened stockings and then gifts, and played with some of our new toys. We left about 1:30 and headed to our friend Mona's house with sugar cookies and gifts to share with she and Rian. We surprised them and got to stay about an hour with them exchanging gifts and enjoying each other's company.

Then, we were off to San Antonio to visit with Martin's family. We missed a lot of them by coming late in the day, but got to see his Mom & Dad, Steven and Sarah, and then finally I met his brother Bob, Bob's wife Anna, and their children Robert, Carolina, and John Matthew. They missed the wedding and hadn't been at any of the family events we had attended, so I had never met them and the kids hadn't met each other. They are close in age - Caro is in kindergarten, Syd in first, Jake in second and Robert in third grade. The boys immediately bonded over Pokemon cards and Nintendo DS games - very cute. Little John was adorable and captured everyone's attention right away. He's ten months old and not even Martin had met him before. I'll come back and add a photo to this post once we pull them off the camera.

We got back from S.A. around 10 Christmas night. The kids had fallen asleep in the car finally. It was a great day!