Christmas with the Relatives

E&R's first Christmas here at home was quite exciting. The day after Christmas, Mommy took E&R on an 8-hour car ride to visit her family for 5 days.

E&R were complete angels on the drive to Grandma & Grandpa's house. The last 1 1/2 hours was even spent driving through a snowstorm but they were so good that the drive was still easy! Once we made it to our destination, we had time to settle in and then it was time to celebrate the holidays with Grandpa's side of the family. Several aunts, uncles, cousins, and cousins kids all came over for the annual Christmas soup/chili dinner. This was our first experience playing with a large group of cousins and only a small percentage of that side of the family's cousins were there! E&R did pretty well playing with everyone and they were so pooped out by bed time that they fell asleep and didn't wake up until 7:00 the next morning. Mommy was in heaven!!!

The next day was just a day to relax and hang out with Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt A. Friday, we headed to Aunt K's house for Mommy's immediate family Christmas. Aunt K/Uncle E, Uncle P, Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt A, and Great-Grandma were all there too! E&R loved playing with Aunt K's cat Spike - they would chase him down the hallway and then he'd turn around and run after them! Uncle P also brought his little dog Gypsy so there were tons of animals to play with!

Saturday morning was the celebration with Grandma's side of the family. Again lots of aunts, uncles, cousins, and cousins kids were all at Great-Grandma's house to play, exchange presents, and of course eat! Learning to play with the cousins part II. R was not feeling too great and was running a fever, but E had a lot of fun being a total ham and giggling everywhere. Saturday afternoon during naps, Mommy, Uncle P, and Aunt A tried to go catch a movie leaving Aunt K & Uncle E to babysit. Unfortunately the movie we wanted to watch was sold out so we went to Target instead to hang out. And wonder of wonders what did Mommy find there????? Barney house-shoes for the kids (gasp)!!!! E was delighted and loves to wear hers - R is a bit more hesitant and freaked out at his at first. Probably Mommy was more excited about them than anyone......

Sunday was the long drive back home to see Daddy. We made it despite having two sick children in the backseat. The three of us had a great time visiting all the relatives, but it sure was nice to get back home to our own comfy beds and familiar toys!