There have been other Christmas celebrations this month such as the Christmas banquet at church and the Christmas cantata last Sunday, but December 22-26 were all about spending time with family and celebrating Christ's birth. On Wednesday morning after eating breakfast we did our family gift exchange. It was the first time Nadia really grasped the concept. I had been asking her what she wanted for Christmas for a few weeks, and a few days before Christmas she finally gave her first request - Sweetpea Beauty (stuffed animal). Thank goodness I had already bought and wrapped that item for her! She thoroughly enjoyed unwrapping ALL the presents under our tree. Of course Paul, Ian, and I didn't mind that she opened our gifts. Next year Ian will probably want to participate in the experience of unwrapping gifts. Ian loved the one gift I got for him - a set of musical instruments. I got Nadia an assortment of things, but hands down her favorite was Sweetpea (a VeggieTale character). Paul got me two Christmas turtlenecks, and I got him two Duke t-shirts and a video card for his computer.
We started the trip to my parents home at about 11:45am and arrived at their home about 4.5 hours later. The trip takes longer with kids as we need to make stops to change diapers and such. Nadia had taken a morning nap at home; I hadn't tried to have that happen, but she fell asleep playing in her room. In light of that we didn't insist that she sleep in the car. She either listened to Christmas cd's or watched dvd's the whole time. Ian watched her dvd a little, played some, and slept some. He cried for part of the trip, but all things considered it went smoothly. We spent the next 50 hours at my parents house. My brother lives with my parents, and my sister from Chicago along with her hubby and three kids were also there. We enjoyed spending time together doing things like making Christmas cookies, caroling at the neighbors houses, and such on Thursday. On Christmas Eve we had our gift exchange in the morning, and my mom cooked a delicious turkey dinner for the noon meal. That night after they headed to their Christmas eve service at church, we drove to Paul's parents home. Ian slept the whole way there. Nadia watched dvd's for most of the trip and slept for the last part. Thankfully the trip took a few minutes less than 3 hours. We had no trouble getting Nadia back to sleep. Both kids were asleep when we pulled in their driveway, but they both woke up while taking them out of their carseats. Ian kept alternating between sleeping and crying for the next 5 hours. Thankfully he finally fell asleep for good at 2am.
On Christmas morning Nadia woke up at 6:15 (which was great as she had awakened at 5am on Christmas Eve) and Ian woke up at 7:15. After everyone had gotten dressed and eaten breakfast, we exchanged gifts with Paul's parents. While Nadia was napping, Paul's grandmother and his brother's family arrived. We ate a delicious ham and roast beef dinner while Nadia slept. She didn't wake up until about 3:30pm. Almost all of the presents (except for hers) had been opened while she slept. This was her least enthusiastic experience in terms of unwrapping presents. She was still waking up, and she was hungry. This translated to an emotionally fragile child. She perked up after I fed her. The only table food I gave Ian was the cream cheese from inside of a pumpkin roll. He loved it!
Ian has done a LOT of crawling the last few days. His speed has increased dramatically. The two biggest motivations to get him crawling at top speed are #1 the sight of Christmas lights (such as on a tree) and #2 Paul's parents dog. Fergie is 17 years old so she's not as keen on young children as she used to be, but Ian squealed with delight whenever he got near her.
Tomorrow we are going to church with Paul's family and then heading to Harrisburg to spend the afternoon at Paul's Aunt's home (his mom's sister). Paul's cousins and their spouses and children will be there as well. That will be the last day of our Christmas celebration for 2010. On Monday life will return back to normal, which will be good for my waistline as all these celebrations have involved lots of yummy food! I was planning to start exercising at home next week so I can lose a little more weight before our cruise, and since my parents gave us a Wii fit for Christmas I think I'll give that a whirl starting on Monday. It was great to see almost all our family over the past few days. We didn't get to see my sister, Yvonne, or her family in person, but at least we were able to chat with them via Skype on Friday. Although we've had a wonderful time the last few days, I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tomorrow night.
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