Post-Christmas fun

The rest of our Christmas break was spent floating back and forth between family houses.

Pillow fights! I think Lance may have a slight advantage...

This book still hasn't lost it's appeal. Cole took it with him everywhere we went and would spend hours flipping through the pages.

Allred Christmas dinner! Since Laura and I have other family in town, my mom does her Christmas dinner a couple days after the big day so everyone can make it.

Once again, George had to work.

Grandma Brewer made her special coconut cake--so, so good!

After-Christmas shopping with Cole. He had to check out this little train.

Lance is becoming quite the cribbage player, thanks to Grandma and GiGi's help. 

We celebrated Corin's Birthday while everyone was home!  We love having her as part of the family.

Lily has been obsessed with babies lately and insisted on holding "Baby Austin". Sorry, Peanut. He's a big as you!

His size didn't phase her a bit and she sat like this for a good 5 minutes before she was finished. I think she's going to be a great big sister!

Family game night! Telestrations never disappoints!

George and I got to go on a date!! We saw the new Star Wars moving at the IMAX theater. It was so nice to be out just the two of us--it doesn't happen often, so when it does, it's a special treat.

Jude lost another tooth! This kid has lost so many, I'm loosing count. It took him about a day of twisting and wiggling before he mustered the courage to yank it out, but he did it! He pulled out a second one a couple days later.

Driving back to Charlottesville after a long, fun week with family:

As soon as we got home, Lily insisted on pulling out one of her favorite gifts:

Thanks, Aunt Laura, for the ponies! She loves them!

It was good to be home! 

Christmas Day 2015

Christmas morning came too early for the adults, but to their credit, the kids were very patient after waking up.

George had worked the night shift in Culpeper, so I told the kids we had to wait for him to come home before we could go downstairs to open gifts.

Waiting...

And waiting...

George made it back in record time, before even the rest of the adults were ready to come down. 

More waiting...

The whole group!

Lance's reaction seeing the tree:

Stockings first!

Poor Daddy. So tired.

Blue candy canes?? Cole was in heaven!

This book may have been Cole's favorite gift. He's obsessed with trains and while this book is obviously head and tails above his reading and comprehension level, the pictures are great and he spent most of the day flipping through the whole book.

Skylanders! Jude's #1 wish of the year.

Horses!

This shirt is so, so true. George was made for Emergency Medicine. There are very few things that rile this guy.

Jason got a ukulele!

World's Largest Gummy Worm!! Jude has been begging for this for over a year and I guess Santa finally decided seeing this face was worth the $30 price-tag.

Possible mom-fail here. We had seen a few episodes of this TV show called Blackish during the summer and thought they were great, Lance being the biggest fan, so I got him the first season. After watching it through, I'm not sure it's totally appropriate for a kid his age. Oops. To my credit, the theme of the show is all about family and the importance of family relationships and the episodes we saw were clean. Probably won't be adding the second season to our family viewing list, but Lance sure was excited. (It is a hilarious show for adults, so feel free to check it out, but you may need to edit if watching with kids...we learned this the hard way.)

I got George several shirts for the gym and thought this one was hysterical.

Lance was in love with this bean bag chair he got. He dragged it all over the house and between houses the whole week of Christmas.

Amy MADE this for Corin out of perler beads! Yes, that huge wolf head is made completely out of tiny beads in a pattern Amy designed from a photo. Crazy!

And the biggest gift? The kids got a trampoline!! Santa had it delivered to Grandma's garage, ready for us to take home and set up.

I think they were a little excited.

Trying out the gummy worm:

All the kids thought it was great and Jude was kind enough to share with everyone.

After a fun-filled morning of gifts and family, we drove over to George's parent's house to join the rest of our family for Christmas dinner.

I still can't believe they fit more than 20 people around the table each year!

Lily feeling old at the big table.

Cole was still looking at his book.

This guy was a trooper. Pulling an all-nighter and not getting to nap is rough.

Love, love, love our family! Merry Christmas!