The Huinker Family - We celebrated the weekend before Christmas with the Hodens, Pat and Roger, and us. The Hodens arrived Saturday afternoon, and we pretty much didn't see our kids (other than for opening presents) until they left Monday morning. As always it was fun watching the cousins play together, and Olivia and Grace loved having sleepovers at Grandma and Grandpa's! In fact, Olivia or Grace (I can't remember) asked if they could stay for 100 nights. :) We missed Tara and Tony but did get to Facetime with them a couple of times and have promised that this is the only Christmas we won't spend together while they're in Japan. And, it was reassuring to know that Beth and Chris would be seeing them shortly!
Our Family - Santa came Christmas Eve morning! The girls were excited to see their note from both Santa and Emily Ann (our elf) and both informed me that they had heard Santa the night before. It's hard to say what their "favorite" presents were but we've been playing a lot of games and dolls and reading a lot of books since then. I spent the rest of the morning packing and trying to organize before we headed up to Northfield...we decided to go early because of a snowstorm which hit about 1/2 way through our drive. The kids held up great through, and other than a quick stop to feed Grady, we plowed through and arrived in time to order sushi with Nathan and get the kids to bed at a reasonable time.
Santa brought the girls cool bean bag chairs, and Grace was especially pumped that he heard her request for a new Barbie movie (she asked for this exact one!).
The Thornton Family - Christmas morning we once again got to indulge in presents. The girls had a great time playing with the cradles my mom and Mark gave them for their American girls dolls (which I had knowingly packed). Around noon, the rest of the extended family arrived, and we all enjoyed opening presents and eating way too many hors de vours! Brian headed home in my mom's car on Christmas night so he could finish up the end of a very busy month, but the girls and I stayed for a couple more days. It was very nice having help (especially since this was when Grady started his no-nap week), and I also felt like I truly relaxed a bit as I couldn't be distracted by the types of things I would have been if I'd been home. Grace probably spent as much time in the bath playing (seriously 2 baths a day) than doing anything else; apparently Grandma's bathtub is way cooler than ours at home. It was so nice to spend time with Nathan too and give the girls a chance to really bond with him - especially over legos - go figure (Nathan and I used to play those so much as kids). Nathan, Thyme, and I went to the movies on Thursday, and on Friday we enjoyed some time out in the snow as it was a beautiful day and spent some time with our good friends the Woitallas. We were glad to see Brian though on Saturday (we met him in Rochester and switched vehicles), and it felt good to get home too! Once again though, the girls were disappointed that our stay wasn't longer! My mom said the house seemed especially quiet on Saturday night!
Grady all cozy in his new chair from Auntie Thyme.
A happy family.
Since then, we've organized and re-organized our presents and house (the basement and the girls' rooms especially) and made the most of the time home together! Oh, and we celebrated New Year's with our good friends the Gavles. After dinner at our house, the girls headed down to theirs for a sleepover that was deemed a success even though it included a few middle-of-the-night conversations about missing mom!
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