Second Christmas in Kansas

Today I finishing our Christmas recap.

 

This is the first year we've seen both sides of our families around Christmas. The effort was to hopefully have the chance to spend more time with Dan's brother and his family without putting too much schedule pressure on Christmas day itself. It's a real juggle for multiple families each with two "sides" to accommodate everyone. But, I think this worked out nicely this year. By pushing our visit to Kansas until after Christmas day, we guaranteed a solid day of family time at Grandmas' house with cousins.

 

Dan and the kids and I arrived in Kansas the Friday after Christmas. Grandma picked us up and we went to a late lunch at our traditional stop at Fritz's - the cool restaurant that delivers food to the table via model train!

 

 

When we got to the house we made some phone calls on the rotary phone (history lesson) and played table hockey with toilet paper rolls. Lol!

 

Grandma's house wins top prize for being the MOST festive. It makes me so happy.

 

She has seven Christmas trees!

 

 

Christmas card tree

 

Upside down tree

 

Snowman tree!

 

 

Cardinal Tree (I should have gotten a closer photo of the cardinal ornaments)

 

 

And the newest addition of the Grinch tree!

On Saturday morning was Second Christmas! The kids were thrilled.

Uncle Sam and Aunt Lauren arrived late morning with Hunter and Olivia and we opened presents as a family. And played together for the majority of the day.

I especially liked that Ivy and Olivia played for a bit since they are closest in age and interest. It was really fun for the kids to have some cousin time. 

Later that afternoon Kip and Ivy got to play with their third cousin (I think that's what we decided the distance was).

It was a really, really great day.

Unfortunately, Kip got sick later in the night which is never fun and doubly difficult when we aren't in our own home. I tended to him through the night and forced him to do nothing the next day. He hated that but fortunately he rebounded during the rest day. 

That afternoon, he and I stayed at the house while everyone else went into Kansas City for Hunter's birthday party. Ivy had a great time at the play place.

On Monday, everyone was feeling good so we were able to go to Elsmore and visit with Aunt Judy, Aunt Kandi, and Uncle Willy for THIRD Christmas. I tell you, these kids have it MADE. They are always so spoiled with love, attention, and of course gifts. 

And we all got to enjoy Uncle Willy's fresh fish tacos. That's our new Elsmore tradition. 

On Tuesday we headed back to the airport for a VERY long travel day with two planes and one layover plus a drive through city traffic on New Years Eve. It was a long journey but visiting with family always makes it worth it and I am grateful the kids got to bond with all their close relatives this holiday season.

Thank you for a wonderful second Christmas Grandma!

Now it's post New Years. We're experiencing negative wind chill and we've entered the longest month of the year. Deep into the winter doldrums. I'm relishing memories of the holiday season to get me through to spring.

Christmas Recap

Better late than never! I'm sharing our Christmas recap today.

This year we hosted my family at our home in New Jersey!! Poppa, Aunt Jagee (Jess), and Uncle Greg with his cutie dog Lucy all arrived on the Monday before Christmas (which feels like a century ago already).

We spent mellow days at the house. Decorated a gingerbread house together and Aunt Mimi's classic Christmas cookies. And we got another extra dusting of snow on Christmas Eve! So fun!

Gosh these cookies were good!!!

We set out our milk and cookies for Santa, 9 carrots for the reindeer, and a crumb of cheese for Santa Mouse. 

And on Christmas morning we woke up to see that Santa had arrived!!!And loads more gifts set out under the tree.

There's just nothing like opening presents on Christmas morning as a kid. I'm convinced as parents, we're always chasing that feeling and trying to capture it for our own kids. I sure hope we succeeded. 

Both kids were very grateful and kind all morning which is an improvement from years past. No tears of disappointment is always a win!

We played the rest of the day.

Looked cute in matching clothes.

And enjoyed meals together.

The guys watched football all day - special treat for Dan's team - and we went outside for a bit as well. 

 

Jagee got us a special family gift (with approval from Marmee) of a soft serve ice cream machine!! So Jagee and Ivy tried it out for a coffee o'clock treat. Thumbs up all around!

We also had a puzzle going for the adults and also did gem painting ornaments - which apparently I didn't get any pictures of either! Darn.

And we ended the day with a delightful Christmas dinner together.

Uncle Greg and Lucy left the next day. It always feels so fast. I remember that as a kid, so much build-up and then it's over. We squeezed in lunch out as a family in between packing.

On Friday, Jess and Poppa headed back home and Dan and I loaded up the kids to catch a flight to Kansas.

The let-down of Christmas ending is always made better with the promise of second Christmas to come!

Hosting the holiday is a lot of work but I am grateful for our home which can meet all our needs with space to spare and new family traditions to foster. 

And a special blog shout-out to Aunt Mandy who steered the mastered the hosting with her expert planning and culinary skills.