Christmas in Virginia - Part 2

We were so fortunate to be able to spend such a long time up in Virginia this year. We were able to be a part of some Christmas traditions that we usually don't arrive in time for. One of them being Christmas brunch at the Norfolk Yacht Club. This tradition was started many years ago to celebrate my parent's anniversary and dad's birthday. It was sad for me to be back there for the first time without my dad, and it didn't help that my mom wasn't there this year either. But the amazing view and unbelievable food quickly brightened our spirits :) Professional Christmas carolers sing to you while you eat, and really help put you in the Christmas spirit. It's such a neat tradition, that I hope we're able to be a part of often.

These two are much more a brother & sister to me than cousins. We just love being together for things like this again!

We pulled into town the day that my cousin Patrick graduated from Old Dominion University. He and his girlfriend Brittany graduated together, despite their slight age difference :) We were able to join the whole family for their graduation dinner that night at a fancy restaurant. Eli thoroughly enjoyed himself, despite his long day of travel with little sleep.

We arrived on Saturday, and by Monday I had already visited all 3 of my favorite malls. To help ease the shopping burden for Eli, we stopped for a ride on the carousel. He's always begged to ride carousels, but this time wasn't so sure. He hung onto me for dear life once it started moving.

We got plenty of much needed time with my grandparents. We stayed at their house for our entire trip, and they just loved having Eli around for the week. My grandad had bronchitis when we got there, and my grandma caught it a few days later, but thankfully we've somehow managed not to get it. Another Christmas miracle as my husband would say! I didn't even stress about germs, and surprised myself by not obsessing over it. I just decided early on that if we were going to get it, then there wasn't a thing I could do about it.

He spent an entire evening running back & forth into the arms of his great-grandparents :)

My Aunt always hosts a little Christmas party the night before Christmas Eve. To say Eli enjoyed himself would be an understatement! He just simply loves the extra attention he gets at family gatherings. He was showing off his new dance moves, his new found singing voice, and spent plenty of time playing with his favorite basset hound, Cleo.

What's the best way to get a picture of your toddler in front of the Christmas tree? Well...you must catch them as they happen to be walking past the tree :)

What an extra special Grandad we have!

We went to Christmas Eve service as a family, and then all of the adults went to a movie! My grandparents were excellent babysitters each night, watching over Eli as he was in bed :) It was such a treat to be able to go out after we put him to bed for the night.

Did I mention that this was my favorite Christmas gift?! I'm having so much fun with my new toy!

Christmas in Virginia

We've had a crazy fun Christmas in Virginia. And after 11 days, we'll finally be heading home tomorrow! Lord willing, it won't take us 20 hours to drive home. We're preparing for the worst though! We never in a million years imagined that we'd be snowed in for the remainder of our visit! Christmas was full of wonderful memories as always, and this time with family has been so special. Eli had a great Christmas, and we just get so much joy watching our family members with him. He just loves all of the extra love and attention.

He's really starting to get the hang of present opening.

Christmas brunch at my Grandparent's house is always AMAZING. She really knows how to pack the holiday pounds on all of us!

All of the 'kids' on Christmas morning, and the first picture with my NEW camera! My husband simply blew my socks off this Christmas. We had recently been talking about how we would love to upgrade our camera to a DSLR, and we'd try to save over the next year or so for one. He waited until all of the presents had been opened, made me sit down, and handed me a huge Nikon camera bag. I started crying before I could even get the bag open. We don't usually buy presents for each other, so I was completely shocked. Many brownie points, and a lifetime of beautiful photographs!

The next day we woke up to the biggest snow storm any of us 'kids' had ever seen. Blizzard like conditions and 14inches of snow made for some great photo opportunities for me and my new toy! Eli loved the snow, but didn't care for all of the 'gear' that he had to wear to go out in it. He doesn't own a real winter coat or snow boots, so we had to compromise for his short trip outside.

He was mesmerized by all of the snow. He spent lots of time just watching the snow fall out the front door at my grandparent's house

Snowball fights!

We literally played in the snow all day.

Simply beautiful!

My husband kept us laughing ALL day. He couldn't get enough of the snow. He borrowed some extra small ski bibs from my cousin, a girl's snow hat, a pair of mittens, and he was good to go for the day. I've never seen him get so excited about something before!

My sweet boys made this Christmas the best one yet. We're very ready to be back in our own home again, but we're thankful for the fun and relaxation we've had over the past week.

'Tis the Season

I just LOVE the month of December, and all things Christmas. We've been busy with parades and parties, and lots of good fellowship. Many hate the thought of it, but I just love shopping during the holidays. I don't mind the crowds at all. There's just something about being in a mall thats all decorated for Christmas, so I've been sure to spend as much time there as possible :)

We all really enjoyed the big Christmas parade in Downtown Bluffton. We'd never been before, and thought it was really good. Eli really enjoyed all of the fun cars, firetrucks and animals.

I'm pretty sure this is the first time we've ever used our firepit before January! We've had some unusually cold December days. Eli wasn't sure at first, but quickly 'warmed' up to sitting by the fire. One of his favorite words to say is 'HOTTT.'

Sneaky little fella ;)
I get sad when I see pictures of him looking so grown up. But at the same time, we're just loving this age that he's at, and wish we could freeze him here for a while! He is talking SO much. I'm just blown away at how much he's changing every single day.

This was our first year getting to attend a super fun Christmas party that a couple from our church puts on every year. It's for all of the younger married couples in the church, and it was seriously a blast. We had heard such hilarious stories from previous years, that we just couldn't wait to go this year. We even managed to get a picture of just the two of us :) This week is so incredibly busy for us. I'm trying to fit as much work in as possible before we leave this weekend for Virginia. I'm so looking forward to a good visit with our family & friends. I just can't wait to see Eli on Christmas morning this year.

What a big difference a year makes!

Helper Boy

Eli would spend every waking moment outside if we'd let him. He got so much joy out of helping his daddy rake leaves last week. It just does my heart good to watch these two do even the simplest of things together.

He really was a great helper :)

Something tells me he's going to be a lot like his daddy...and that sounds just perfect to me :)

He's also really good with babies. He's so sweet and gentle, and loves to make them smile. We had fun watching baby Amelia for the day last Friday, and he just loved on her all day! He always made sure that she had her paci. She's such a smiley baby, and he just loves that! We all joke that these pictures will come in handy some day when they go on their first date :)

Daddy gets some good snuggles sometimes too. We're in extreme mommy attachment mode around here. If i'm not at home he's completely fine, but when I'm around he only wants me. I know this is just a phase, and it won't last long, so I'm enjoying the extra loves from my boy.

We're all thankful to have lived through the stomach virus of 2010. I'm glad that its over and behind us now. I'm also glad that it hit Eli and I when it did, and not while we're in VA for Christmas. Praying that we can remain sickness free for a while now!

Our Texas Thanksgiving...

We had a wonderful time visiting Mimi and Papa T in Corpus Christi! My mom was so excited to have us there for her first big holiday in Texas. We tried to experience as much as we could in a week. Unfortunately, Danny came down with the nastiest of stomach bugs on Thanksgiving day. He spent about 24 hours in bed, and then was back to normal in time to fly home Saturday morning. We were planning to spend a kid-free day in San Antonio on Friday, so we were pretty bummed to have missed that chance.

We had seriously low expectations about how Eli would do on the plane. I figured it would be best to just prepare for the worst. Boy did he surprise us! He did great on the two flights there, and did beyond amazing on the way home. We took a dvd player, lots of books and some new toys for the plane ride. He ran his little heart out during our layovers, and slept hard on the second flights. We were so very thankful, as there were screaming toddlers on both of our flights home.
Heading to Texas!
On Sunday we visited the Texas State Aquarium.
It was a gloomy day, so I'm glad we spent it mostly indoors.
Eli LOVED my mom's backyard. It's all fenced in, and then there's steps that lead down to their dock. He loved feeding the birds and fishing with daddy.
He watered Mimi's flowers over and over again...you can tell they needed it ;)
We took Eli to see Santa on Wednesday. None of us thought that he would get near him, but he did sit on his lap long enough for a few good pictures! I was thrilled, even more so that I didn't have to sit on Santa's lap with him!
Santa gave him a special prize for being a good boy :)
He loved getting to snuggle & read books with Mimi before bed each night.
Eli will his Thanksgiving day smile :)

We arrived home and threw ourselves into tackling our busy December schedule. It's a good kind of busy though! And as usual, I'm way behind on blogging.