Merry Christmases

Merry Christmas!

This year our family celebrated Christmas by first visiting Nate's family in Portland, OR the weekend before  Christmas and then driving home Christmas Eve to be able to celebrate with my family on Christmas day. Our celebrating got off to a little bit of a rocky start as Abby was just not having an enjoyable time riding in the car during our drive. Okay, who am I kidding? I've decided that Hell is not fire and brimstone but instead a never-ending car ride with a toddler. :-) Our drive, which normally takes 3.5 hours from door to door, instead took 5.5 hours and included three stops and one Exorcist like vomiting episode, plus all the accompanying whining, kicking, fussing, and yelling. But to Portland we did eventually land!

This year we decided to try a different sort of Christmas dinner and instead of spending all day preparing food and then dealing with the cleanup afterwards, we went out to dinner. I thought it turned out great as we sat down to a yummy feast at Sayler's Old Country Kitchen (one of the best stead restaurants I've ever been to) where Abby was so good for the two or so hours we were there (and since Nate and I were sitting at the opposite end of the table from Abby it was almost like we were on a date as well!) and had fun just talking to everyone before we headed home to open presents. Abby was a little funny this year with presents as she had zero interest in opening them (last year she had fun opening at least a few before becoming overwhelmed). We finally got her to open one and once she realized it was a baby (complete with towel, rubber ducky, and other bath assortments) she was done for the day. We kept half-opening gifts in the hopes that she'd eventually get into the spirit but eventually we got to the point where we realized we simply could not get her to open another one. :-) The rest of the time spent with Nate's parents and grandparents was passed by making up a bunch of freezer food, playing cribbage and other card games, and just enjoying each others company. All too soon Christmas Eve was upon us and it was time to head back home. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it) our drive back took only 5 hours and Abby did nap a bit of it, but we were still very happy to get home.

Eating Christmas dinner at Country Kitchen. Notice how Nate and I are FAR away from Abby. We like to say it's to give her time with Grandma and Grandpa. Yeah, it's totally just for that. :-)

Opening the one present we were able to convince her to open.

Look at her face! She loves her new doll.

Swinging on her 'swing'. A $2.00 garage sale steal repurposed into a great swing.

Our plan Christmas morning was to wake up and head to Christmas Mass before joining up with my family but someone (ahem, Abby) decided that sleeping was for the weak and ended up waking up at 3:30am and refused to go back to sleep. At 6am I pulled her in to bed with me and decided that Mass wasn't going to happen this year. Instead we slept in until almost 9am before getting up and slowly starting our day. When we got to my parent's house the snacking was in full force (Chex Mix, pepper jelly with cream cheese on crackers, sausage balls, cookies and candies galore, and dinner just going in to the oven) so we ate and hung out while waiting for my brother David to wake up and come downstairs (he's home from college) and for Katie, Bo, and Haylee (sister, boyfriend, and daughter) to arrive. When they did they also brought the snow with them! It was going to be a White Christmas!

Abby almost got her princess skirt up and over her tushie. :-)

Haylee and Abby love each other so much. They're great cousins!

Soon we commenced with opening presents, which turned out really nicely even with the change we instituted this year. This year we decided to only buy gifts for the girls (Haylee and Abby) and not for each other ((well except Mom and Dad who still decided to buy for us kids as they said that since we're their kids it counted as only buying for kids - sneaky) and David as we didn't think it was fair that he buy for the girls and not 'get anything' for himself since he doesn't have a kid yet to buy for). So while it looks complicated on paper it really wasn't and we all agreed that it was nice not buying for the others when no one really needs anything anyways. I think we liked it so much that we'll continue this for next year as well! Anyways, after opening presents it had snowed enough that we decided to take the girls out in the backyard to play. Then Bo found two sleds. Then Katie got the idea of using the riding lawnmower/tractor to pull the sleds. What happened next was just an old fashioned "white trash" sledding party. Oh, the girls had SO MUCH FUN! Even us big kids got into the spirit of things!

Abby following Haylee's lead and walking on top of the garden wall and feeling so proud of herself.

Walking in a snowsuit is hard! "I've fallen and I can't get up!"

Then the girls had fun riding in a sled together, although Nate soon tired.

Katie's brilliant idea saved the day! Bo shows up his snowboarding skills, too.

The girls' giggles could be heard from far away. They thought this was such a fun ride! (Or really rides as they were probably pulled for a good 20 minutes before we stopped.) I love how Haylee is holding Abby's hand so Abby doesn't get scared.

Then Nate took over driving duties!

Eventually we took to the hill/driveway for some real sledding. Abby wasn't so sure about this and after a fun slides down the hill decided she wasn't quite big enough for down-hill sledding.

So Nate drove her around on her new bike from Uncle Bo, Aunt Katie, and Cousin Haylee!

All too soon the weather was getting colder (and so was Miss Haylee without her snow pants) and so we ended the day by watching How to Train Your Dragon and Kung Foo Panda before we all said our Merry Christmases and Good-byes. After talking with my family we agreed that this was the best Akers' Christmas we've had in a long time, in fact it's one of our best holiday memories ever (right up there with skiing on Thanksgiving where we would, literally, ski down the mountain and onto a chairlift as we were five of the twenty or so people on the mountain).

Overall this was a wonderful Christmas celebration with both of our families. We enjoyed being with each other and celebrating this special time of year together. Merry Christmas!