This year we had the joy of spending the holidays with both sets of families. We usually alternate between the two, but with my brother Dave, his wife Lindsay and their new little one Nori (just 3 weeks older than Jonathan) in town over New Years, we made the trek up to Minnesota for Christmas with the Marches and then over to the the Mitten the following weekend to be with my family. We had such a wonderful time over these two weeks. The pics tell it all...
Christmas in Minnesota:
Our first order of business was the traditional Christmas cookie
decorating.
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| This is serious business |
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| Good try little man. We'll work on this for next year. |
We started the present
exchanging on Christmas Eve with Tim's Aunt Sue & Grandma. Our niece Allie
received a couple dolls and a coordinating bunk bed. Caleb took no time in
attempting to overtake and destroy...
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| Who, me? Causing trouble? No way. |
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| Okay, maybe a little trouble. |
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| Tim's still got it. |
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| I can't recall exactly what is taking place here, but I assume it involves Caleb stealing toys again. |
The karaoke machine (once again given to our niece, Mercy) was a fan favorite, especially for Caleb:
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| He may not be able to decorate cookies, but he can sure sing. |
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| These two should take their show on the road. |
As if Christmas Even wasn't fun enough, the festivities only heightened on Christmas morning. We really tried to keep the meaning of the day as focused on Jesus as we could, but it was so fun celebrating his birth by lavishing our kids with toys! Plus, I recently read that giving gifts to our kids (yes, even gifts from Santa) on Christmas, despite how "naughty" they may have been throughout the year, is a great metaphor (one that is easier for a little mind to comprehend) for how God, in his grace and mercy, gives his children the very best gift of all - one that we certainly do not deserve. Maybe I'm just saying that so I don't feel bad for how spoiled Caleb and Jonathan were with the many toys they received, but either way, we had a blast!
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| Kudos to Tim for the awesome track he constructed out of Caleb's new train set. |
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| The joy on his face! |
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| And the choo choo sounds! |
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| The extent of JD's participation |
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| And the track lasted 15 minutes. |
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| But he had so much fun destroying it. |
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| I was personally most excited about this next gift. Caleb has been walking around the house for weeks playing an air guitar as he mimics the musicians from his Elmo videos... |
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| Now he can play the real thing! |
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| Don't forget about me! |
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| How could we forget about you buddy?? |
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| Merry Christmas from the Marches! |
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| Love winter walks with the boys. |
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| And the short, but special, moment Tim and I had to exchange gifts. I'm a sucker for traditions and buying and opening stockings is perhaps one of my favorites. I just love all of the thought that goes into each little gift. Tim hit it out of the park this year, especially when I opened a package of DVDs he had gotten from my college soccer coach which contained the video footage of several of my games. What a guy! |
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| Opening presents together was fun... |
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| Until it wasn't... and then it really wasn't. All of the activity was a bit too much for this little guy. |
As you can see, we had a great time in Minnesota and we were sad to say good bye. Thankfully we had the following weekend to look forward to...
Christmas & New Years in Michigan:
Ready for some unabashed, suuuuper cheesiness? Here we go... as I look back at photos from our time in Michigan, the pics of Caleb receiving his gifts are awesome (you'll soon see), but the best gift was definitely the time we spent together. As I mentioned earlier, my brother and his family live in Hong Kong; therefore, we do not get to spend much time with them. We waited almost 3 months to meet their little squeeze, Nori, and she was as adorable as we imagined.
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I knew JD was big, but didn't realize just how big until he was with his older cousin...
he weighed at 4 weeks what she weighed at 9! |
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| That's one proud Papa and Uncle |
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| So happy to be together |
I just love the photos of the grandparents with their grand babies:
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Grammy & Grandpa had Caleb's number this Christmas. You probably know by now that he is obsessed with lawn mowers. What better gift than his very own John Deer!!
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| "Wow!" |
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| You may think by looking at this picture that Caleb is giving Jonathan a ride... |
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| But you would be wrong. Tim actually snuck JD in the back while Caleb wasn't looking... as soon as he realized what was going on, he immediately turned around, gave JD a shove and instructed him to get "OUT" (we're working on the sharing concept) |
Grammy may have held the upper hand in previous visits, but this one was all about Grandpa. Caleb couldn't get enough... he followed him everywhere and insisted on "helping" whenever he could:
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| Helping Gramps build a fire. |
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| Stacking wood in his tractor bed |
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| Taking notes |
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| Mesmerized |
Chef Caleb helped prepare the delicious homemade fettuccine alfredo and crab leg dinner we enjoyed to celebrate my mom's birthday and New Year's Eve:
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| First you measure |
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| Then you stir |
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| Don't forget the kneading |
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| And finally the rolling. |
The bitter cold did not stop this guy from frolicking in the snow:
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| Patiently waiting for his turn down the hill with Uncle D |
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| Don't worry, we still haven't forgotten about you Jonathan |
Seeing as how our family is rarely all together, we had to capture the moment with family pics:
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| The Richardson clan |
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| My grandparents (who I just adore) with all of their grandsons. |
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| Love my little snuggly bug |
Phew, that's it! So thankful that we wrapped up one year and kicked off another with such good family time - feeling very blessed!
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