Happy New Year!

We just hung around recovering from all the excitement and enjoying all the new toys Monday and Tuesday until an impromptu New Year's Eve gathering last night.  

The kids all played so well together we hardly saw them and the grown ups had some relaxing chatting time after the holiday bustle.

This hug prompted an even more impromptu New Year's Eve sleep over...

Welcome 2020!

And Continues...

Every year after Christmas in New Hampshire we drive down to Connecticut to see my mom's side of the family. We drove down early yesterday morning, spent the day with everyone at my Aunt's house, spent the night at a hotel, woke up to swim in the pool, and had breakfast and played a little more this morning before driving back to New York. 

pretty soon we won't all fit on the stairs!

Christmas Continues

Christmas for us is a multi-day event. After waking up at our house on Christmas, we drove to New Hampshire to have Christmas #2 at Gram and Grumpy's house.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve church service was nice, complete with candlelight hymns. 

We came home to eat and put out cookies for Santa and then it was time to head to bed for the kids while all the grown ups chatted and enjoyed the Christmas Even food and preparations.

Surprisingly, the kids didn't wake up before it was light, but they were jumping around at the first light of dawn.

Stockings first while breakfast cooked and Auntie Jen and Uncle Dan drove over.

After breakfast we opened presents and enjoyed being all together.

I read an idea to document your Christmas Day by setting up a camera and having everyone occasionally press the shutter with a remote, so here's a snapshot of our day:

 We took lots of breaks to play and enjoy our new toys.

Then it was just time to get ready for the Christmas roast beef!

But wait... was there one more present we forgot about??

We told the kids we were putting a Murphy Bed for guests in the basement. Surprise! Instead Daddy had been working hard on installing a rock wall!

Best Christmas yet. Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas Season Traditions

Every year, before Christmas, there are a few things we've come to call tradition.

The typical cookie decorating,

A holiday party with our oldest playgroup friends, complete with slow motion video, and a get together with even older pre-kids-friends to eat Chinese food.

With everything checked off, let Christmas begin!

A Quick December Trip

We are in NH for just a couple days. It's tricky to travel so close to Christmas, but Laurie Berkner, one of the kids favorite musicians, played a Christmas concert at the Capital Center for the Arts yesterday and we'd bought tickets months ago when we saw she was doing a Christmas concert.

On the way in, we stopped at the King Arthur Flour headquarters where they have a cafe and shop to have lunch for Auntie Jen. It was so Christmassy! The food was delicious and the shop was full of good gifts.

Yesterday the kids loved the concert. Poor SlimJim was so tired because it was during his nap, but aside from a small fit about not touching a beach ball, he enjoyed it just as much as the girls.

Mr. T. didn't get to go so we brought him to Home Depot to ride the tractors.

Tomorrow it's back to NY to finish up the Christmas preparations!