As I wrap up the holiday posts, I cannot forget to mention what a fantastic family Andrew has… I managed to take a bunch of pictures at my mom’s house, then just kind of put the camera down to breathe over the next two days. As a result, we have no evidence of the remainder of the trip, which involved the following, in no particular order: playing with cousins Reina and Liam as they hosted us at their house; eating delicious dinner with Annie and Billy- this time in their place; hanging out with Andrew’s youngest siblings Katie and Austin, who gave us a break from being parents for a couple of hours; Andrew taking the kids to throw rocks into the creek in Loveland; a huge family get-together at Andrew’s Aunt Janine & Uncle Dan’s house; grown cousins and growing cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents and Gina-mom and more fun and action and delicious food (including the most delicious bread pudding made by Andrew’s Nana… remind me to get that recipe).
Whew.
And then, early Christmas Eve morning, we went home.
A little dirty.
… where we ran to the grocery store, cleaned the house, made bread (all Andrew), and prepared for a feast with friends on Christmas day. But all the rushing around was well worth it, as we awoke fully rejuvenated in our own beds Christmas morning. The boys were beyond excited and it was a truly magical moment to see them come downstairs and light up at the sight of filled stockings and wrapped presents… for THEM!
Oliver’s favorite gift was, surprisingly, a guitar just like his papa’s. And though we gave this gift to both Milo and Oliver, Oliver let us all know that it was “actually [HIS] guitar.”
And then, after Christmas Day, we were lucky lucky lucky again as our other dear friends brought us an entire feast AND presents AND lots of love to go around.
And there you have it. Christmas. Is. Over.