Merry Christmas

What a great few days this has been. We have had so many Christmas gatherings. We are blessed to have all our family in town and we don't have to travel over the holidays. The down side is that we have so much family here, we are bouncing around from one house to the next. But it is all apart of our Christmas that we are used to and wouldn't trade for the world.

Our first gathering was with the Howards, but luckily we got together the weekend before Christmas. We had our "traditional" family Christmas at the club again and boy it gets crazier every year. This year Aunt Paula decided to do her own version of the birth of baby Jesus. It was very far fetched as you can see in the pictures. She tried to dress Isabel up as the "Angel Fairy", but after a few minutes with Paula, Isabel got "Paula overloaded". It was great to see Aunt Laura all the way from Michigan, but a few out of town cousins, Matt and Sara and J.P., didn't get to make it this year. We had a great time, great food and with great family.





Our Christmas Eve was slam packed. We went over to Silvia's parents' house and did the present exchange and a traditional Portuguese Christmas meal, bacalao(cod fish). After lunch, we went to a mid day Mass where Silvia's aunt Alice (aka "Titi"), got special permission from the hospital to attend Mass. The church was able to get her a van that was wheelchair accessible. The whole family attended the Mass together and afterwards we went back to the hospital to exchange gifts. The children haven't been able to see Titi in the hospital due to a strick visiting policy. Since it was Christmas, the hospital allowed the children to visit. It was a wonderful get together.




On Christmas day, we had our family Christmas. The kids were excited with all the toys that Santa brought. One big toy that the kids got was a see-saw. They kept asking how Santa brought it inside(our Santa stories have been getting more and more elaborate). We spent our morning opening toy packaging, playing with toys and finding shelf space for all the toys in the playroom. By noon, we were at John's mom's side of the family for another Christmas gathering. It's always fun to spend Christmas with everyone at Nana's house. Good food and good laughs. And once again, Uncle Scott had his annual Christmas bon fire. I think each year the stick pile gets bigger and the flames get higher!! We ended the night with relaxing at home and playing with more new toys, unpackaging more toys and finding more room on the shelves. The kids really enjoyed themselves and Mom and Dad are exhausted!!