The White Stuff

Yup. Snow. We got some. Yay. Can you sense my excitement? Ha! I am convinced that would be perfectly content if I never had to come in contact with snow again in my lifetime. That may seem a little extreme, but I'm just sick of it. I think last year did me in. The idea of snow is nice. Looking at snow falling outside from the inside of your warm, cozy house is nice. Shoveling snow, driving in snow, altering plans due to snow, dressing kids up to go out in the snow and then undressing them when they come back in soaked and freezing...not so nice. I know, I'm being a big grouch. Well, we did get a little bit of snow over Christmas break. I am thankful it was during a vacation and there wasn't any school, that it was a normal day off for work for me, and that the snow that fell is already gone! Oh, yeah, and I'm glad that at least the kids can appreciate the snow and had a blast playing in it!

Christmas Day

I absolutely loved our Christmas Day. It was perfect. From the time we picked up the kids until the time we went to bed, it was simply the best day ever.

It was filled with lots of presents and smiles, of course :)
The kids loved their gifts...

And they love each other too!

Emma, Abby & Nate all did their own shopping for mine and Jake's gifts and they did such a great job picking out the perfect presents! I love that they get so much joy out of giving gifts to others...it makes me smile :)

Like my new princess crown? Nate picked it out himself!

After opening presents, we enjoyed a delicious dinner that Jake made for us. Just a little FYI: we are all drinking soda out of wine glasses. The kids love to use the "fancy cups" on holidays :)

And then we had a super yummy dessert created by the kids. They worked together to make this chocolaty creation...

The end result...

... Delicious!

Like I said, it was the perfect day. I feel so blessed to have the most wonderful family to spend Christmas with. I hope your day was just as special as ours was.

A Christmas Surprise

As a result of our family living in PA and my little sister, Dee, living in London...there are very few occasions that my Mom has all three of her daughters with her at the same time. It's not easy to coordinate visits at anytime during the year and holidays are especially tricky. That being said, it has been several years that my Mom has had all three of her girls home with her for Christmas. Well, this Christmas my little sister was traveling back home with her fiance, Ross. Jake and I don't usually travel up to MA for Christmas because we go up earlier in the month with the kids. However, this year was special. My sister would be here and Jake and I didn't have the kids until Christmas day in the afternoon. So we decided to be a little crazy and make a really quick surprise trip up to MA. We left late in the evening on the 23rd, spent the day with Barbara & Christine on the 24th and surprised my family that evening, then drove back to PA at 6:30am on the 25th!!! It was a little crazy, but totally worth it!

SURPRISE!! We're here!!

I wish we had the camera ready when Dee opened the door to discover Jake and I standing on the front step...it was priceless!

Dee & Ross...
My older sister, Renee, was the only person who knew we were coming. She made sure everyone was at my Mom's house in time for our arrival.
Chris, Connor & Renee...
My Mom and ALL her girls...

Grammy's boy...

No sooner did we arrive at my Mom's house was it time to shuttle off to my aunt's house for a big Christmas Eve party and lots more surprises :)

The whole gang...

Jamieson, Lucas & Mackenzie...

Cameron. Isn't he just the cutest?!

Jamieson & Alicia...

Uncle Barry & Tante Annette...

Lucas. I just LOVE those cheeks!

Memere, Pepere & Lucas...

We are so thankful we got to see all our family and spend this special night together. We are especially thankful to have gotten to see Dee & Ross and spend part of the holiday with them. It was a very special night that we will always remember.

Our Christmas Marathon

A marathon....that is what our Christmas has felt like! Emma, Abby & Nate celebrated Christmas for the entire month of December...literally! They began the festivities the first weekend in December celebrating Christmas with Grandmom & Pop Pop and participating in their church Christmas play. The second weekend in December, we traveled to Mass to celebrate Christmas with the Marshall, Daly & Delaney families all in ONE weekend! The third weekend in December, the kids traveled with Amy to celebrate Christmas with their cousins at Aunt Judy's house. And finally, on Christmas eve & Christmas day, they finished off with two more celebrations: one at Mom's house and one at Dad's house. That's a total of 7 family Christmas parties!!!!!!!

Our weekend in Mass was a lot of fun but extremely busy. We packed in 3 family Christmas parties all in one weekend. We were up bright and early Saturday morning to go to Grandpa Marshall's house for breakfast...

Beezy & Auntie Christine
Nate & Abby

Faith & Emma

Emma, Abby & Nate all go some really cool Spy Gear from Grandpa Marshall...

Then it was back to Nana's house for lunch with the Daly family. Grammy Crawley made it back from her trip to Oklahoma just in time for the party. We were all so glad she was there with us!

Grown-up girl, Emma, got her own hair dryer (which she LOVES! Thanks Faith!)

Nate's Toy Story collection is now complete! I think this smile says it all :)

And Abby's Littlest Pet Shop collection has just increased! I think we may need a bigger house!

Spencer & Emma

Grandpa Daly & Abby

They LOVE their Grammy!

After a good nights rest, it was off to Memere & Pepere's house to celebrate with the Delaney family.

Emma, Nate, Abby & Connor

Grammy Linda sure loves her grand kids!

We ha some surprise visitors too. Mackenzie, Jamieson, Traci & Auntie Nancy came over to visit too. It was so nice to see them!

Abby & Jamieson had fun playing Buzz Lightyear Operation...

Mackenzie & Emma had fun together too! They only see each other a couple times a year, but they always have a blast together. By the time we left, they even had a secret hand shake...too cute :)

Nate loves to make Memere & Pepere laugh!

And that was our weekend in a nutshell :) It was so nice to see everyone and have an opportunity to celebrate the holiday together. As always, we made a lot of wonderful memories :)