Christmas in Virginia

Once we arrived in Virginia, Benny and I spent most of the day hiding away wrapping all the presents we had shipped there (one downside of living so far). Thankfully, it was a work-from-home day for Eric and Katie's crew hadn't arrived yet so it was a good time to get it done.

We had our traditional, favorite Christmas Eve homemade pizza for dinner.


We enjoyed seeing the new house decorated for Christmas - this house was made for the holidays!

Our 'Christmas morning' we woke up to beautiful views, as usual here.

Then enjoyed our slow morning opening stockings, enjoying coffee and cinnamon rolls, and exchanging gifts.



Eleanor and Jane helped pass out gifts and unwrap presents.


One of my favorite parts of our family Christmas is taking it slow and making it last, spending the entire morning with everyone's undivided attention.

That afternoon Dave started a bonfire and everyone went out to enjoy it.

The guys even got in and helped.


After being out in the cold, the girls needed hot chocolate.

We had a delicious, amazing dinner that night. My mom always outdoes herself (and Dave too!).

We played on their new pool table, which was a lot of fun!




We took a hike one sunny day.






My mom and sister even went out thrifting with me one day! The guys also got to have their own day visiting some breweries. And one night we went out to eat with dad and Racheal and a good Mexican restaraunt.

We played lots of games during our week there.

Mostly new ones compliments of my brother!

Benny bundled up and grilled for us on football Sunday.


And Ben made a new friend in Duncan.



We got all four kids in the tub for bath time. Which is a whole ordeal in itself!



Jane took advantage of lots of snuggles from Grandma.


It was an amazing week - everything we wanted and more! After 6 months away, it was some much needed family time. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

(Thank you Katie and Mom for some of these photos!)

Christmas in San Antonio

The week before Christmas we flew out to Texas to spend some time with Eric's side of the family. Most of his extended family lives there so it's always busy visiting with everyone!


One day Eric and I drove over to where he used to live when he was really young. It was so cool to see and hear stories from that time.

We tried going to something called Christmas at the Caves, where you go caroling in caves. Unfortunately, it was about a 2 hour wait when we got there. So we just walked around outside for a little bit instead.




We had lots of delicious dinners with everyone.

And played a lot.



We decorated gingerbread houses.


And made Christmas cookies.


Christmas Eve we went to an aunt's house for their traditional tamales for dinner.

Christmas morning we had a nice morning exchanging gifts with immediate family.



Later that morning we went to visit more family and exchange gifts with the bigger group.

It was a little chaotic as usual, but really nice to get to spend time with everyone and see so much family! That night we had dinner with everyone at the house and got to bed early for our 6 AM flight to Virginia!