Christmas Vacation - 2015

Yet another Christmas vacation back to PA is over. It was a nice trip - 12 days (2 of which were travel) - which gives us quality time with friends and family that we do get to see... although there's never enough time to see everyone. As usual, I did not take enough pictures (especially with the good camera) and missed capturing some great events. At least I have the memories!

Sunday - Our outbound flight: We had vouchers to use in the Admiral's Club for the way there and back, so we bribed the kids into being well behaved with snacks and pretended like we frequent the first class lounge all the time... while filling up on all the free goodies and beer. ;)

Below left: Me in the SFO Admiral's Club. Below right: Addison covering her very patient Daddy's head with stickers on the plane. Five and a half hours is a looooong time.

 

Monday - Mike's Birthday! Our first full day happened to be Mike's birthday. Grammy worked and I had a hair appointment, so Mike spent the day with the kids by himself. Poor guy. Luckily, later that night Dave, Amanda and Aunt Cyndie joined us for a proper birthday celebration - meatloaf, mac and cheese and ice cream cake (you'd think it was my birthday)!

Left: Andrew keeping watch for signs of Aunt Amanda or Uncle Dave!

 

Tuesday - Babysitters! - Aunt Amanda watched the kiddos, while Mike and I did some Christmas shopping/wrapping. Later that night, Grammy baby-sat while I met up with Jen and Andrea (of course no pics to prove it), and Mike met up with Carl, Kyle and Phil.

Wednesday - Train Ride to the North Pole (on the New Hope- Ivyland express). The kids loved the train ride with hot chocolate, Christmas carols and of course, Santa!
*For my faithful readers (haha) this is not to be confused with last year's "Polar Express" train ride in CA. There were no characters other than Santa and the crazy guy who sang carols with us and photobombed our pic below.

 

    

 
 

 

Later that night, we headed to Uncle Tim and Aunt Sue's house for dinner and to meet their new puppies!
      
Left: Suzanne preparing filet - delicious! Right: Uncle Steve, Uncle Tim and Mike

Thursday - Christmas Eve: We headed over to Wendy and Gary's house for Christmas Eve dinner. Andrew and Addison had a blast in Brooke and Elaina's play room, and we enjoyed catching up with everyone.

 

Waiting for Andrew to get sleepy....
 

 

Left: Cookies and Milk for the big guy... Right: ....and a carrot for the reindeer!

The Big Day - Santa came! 

 

Stockings!

  
  

Saturday - Elston Christmas at Amanda and Mike's:  We exchanged presents with Amanda, Mike and Gram and Pop (via FaceTime - they sent our presents to Amanda to put under her tree). We also had a visit with Aunt Alice who gave Amanda and I necklaces with our birthstone's from Grandmom Palm's "grandchildren's" ring. It was such a thoughtful gift - I'm wearing mine right now!

Andrew was pooped!

Mike's now ready for Hawaii!

Playing "Brewopoly" - a gift from Gram and Pop.
For the record, it is more fun than Mike is making it look here.

Sunday: Again, no pics to prove it - but we went to Kim and Scott's house for a holiday party. My other college roommate (Joellen, aka Joey) and her family came from NJ, Dean and Neil (guys I went to elementary school with) and their significant others came, and high school friends, Kara and Nash. Between all of us, there were 9 kids, and only 3 of them were boys! It was a blast!

Monday night: We headed to the Tizer's for dinner. Shortly after arriving, Addison developed a fever, and by the end of the night, poor Juliet had one too! We still managed to have a very nice evening, as usual.

Below - Andrew and Juliet up to no good... or maybe they were just playing dress up. :)  

 

Tuesday - rest day: Mike and I got a couple's massage in the morning and stayed in that night. Some of the guys stopped by for a beer with Mike, and Mom-mom and I had a coloring date! Poor Mom-mom was diagnosed with a compression fracture during our stay, so she was told to take it easy... which is very hard for this lively lady to do! So, for Christmas we got her a coloring book to help keep her busy while she's "relaxing". 

Addison feeling a little better hanging with Uncle Dave's dog, Chloe. 

Last day - my birthday!  Wendy and Barb brought the girls over for lunch, and we celebrated Brooke's birthday at lunchtime (and of course, no pics). Later that night, Dave, Amanda and Mike came over for my birthday dinner. Since we can never remember to take a family picture on Christmas day, we tried to take a few pics after dinner. I think we will need to hire a professional next year... between the bad lighting, the two kids and the two dogs... someone is either crying, talking, blinking or getting their head cut off in every picture. At least we tried!