Christmas x3

This year we were busy, busy, busy during the holidays. We got it into our tiny heads that we were going to visit both of our families for both Thanksgiving and Christmas.

It kicked our butt.

The Thursday before Christmas we headed to Dustin's Mom's house.

• We visited at his Grandma's house and had lunch with her
  
• We went back to his mom's house and had dinner
• I baked everything for my sister's party (more on that later)
• We opened gifts with his family (the next day was going to be busy and we didn't want to run out of time)
  

Bob and Gina opening one of their gifts from us.



Keegan



Bailey



Henry and his uncle Kaden. They're buddies.



Henry opening his Radio Flyer.



Henry using his Radio Flyer (sans wheels) as a boat.



After gifts, Kaden provided some entertainment in the form of a puppet show. That particular puppet's name is Henry. And the play was about how people picked on poor Henry. After the play, Kaden asked me to pay him a (real) dollar since I told him that I liked the play.

The next day (Christmas Eve day) we prepared for the huge Christmas dinner/party with Dustin's entire family. The dinner was at the Church (nobody's house can hold everyone... there's a lot of people!). We ate, visited a bit, and then piled back into the car to drive to Columbus. We ended up getting at my Dad's house at around 11:30pm. We unpacked and wrapped a bunch of gifts. It was a long night.

The next morning we woke up and Dustin and I headed off to the hospital. My friend Amy had her sweet little baby girl, Finley, the day before. I could hardly stand to wait one more second before I saw her.



She's absolutely perfect.

After our visit, we headed over to my Mom's apartment to open gifts and have lunch.



Her make-shift tree.



We opened our gifts, ate a yummy lunch, and then had some birthday cake. My sister turned 21 on Christmas day, so we had lots to celebrate. The cake that's on Henry's face is from Michelle's plate. For whatever reason, Henry only wanted to eat lunch from her plate (he reached over, grabbed her plate, and placed it in front of himself and proceeded to eat her food) and her cake. She was nice enough to share.

After lunch and gifts, Henry, Dustin, Michelle and I headed back to my Dad's. My mom actually also went over there, but that was a secret. We were throwing Michelle a "surprise" party (I'm fairly certain she figured it out).

When we got to the front door of my Dad's... this is what you saw:



It was a Harry Potter themed party, so you needed to enter the house through platform 'nine and three quarters'.








I found this poster online where you could upload your own name and image.



My dad printed tons and littered the house with them.

I made tons of treats:

• Cauldron Cakes (white cupcakes with chocolate chip cookie dough centers and chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter cookie dough centers)
• Licorice Wands
  
• Bertie's Botts Every Flavor Beans
• Jelly Slugs
• Butterbeer
  
• Pumpkin Juice
• Pumpkin Bread
• Acid Pops (blow pops with pop rocks)

I made her custom labels to go over root beer bottles for Butterbeer.



I also made labels to go over orange soda for Pumpkin Juice.



She got a variety of Harry Potter gifts.



And an iPad (things have improved since I turned 21... I got a suitcase for my 21st).

After the party, my Dad made an excellent dinner (his first time ever making such a big meal by himself). We had ham, red potatoes, green beans, noodles and stuffing. Yum.

Then our cousin Katie dropped by for a visit.



Finally it was time to open gifts with my Dad.

We got Henry a shopping cart from Pottery Barn Kids.



...which he immediately tried to sit in. I guess he was just doing what he always does with shopping carts?



He LOVES his pots and pans from his Aunt Michelle.



Henry crawling through his Toy Story playhouse/fort.



Henry in his Toy Story mini papasan chair.

FUNNY STORY. Henry kept trying to sit on the chair while it was on the hardwood floor. It kept sliding back on him and he'd fall on his butt. At one point someone told him to sit in his chair and he walked over to it and got ready to sit, but before he sat he moaned this sweet little moan. It's like he was saying, "I'm gonna sit in this chair because you told me to, but I know it's gonna hurt me". It was one of the funniest moments we've had with him. Too cute.

The day after Christmas was my Mom's 50th birthday. We all went out shopping and to lunch. Then some more shopping. Who doesn't love after-Christmas deals?

I had a meeting on Tuesday, so we stayed in town until then.

Monday I shopped more with Henry and my mom while Dustin worked at a coffee shop. Yay for shopping!

On Monday night Dustin, Michelle, Henry, my Dad and I headed out to the Zoo to see the lights.





It was 20 degrees when we got there and 18 when we left. It was cooooold!







There was supposed to be a scuba Santa in the aquarium... it was a bald guy. Not. Cool.

Henry liked looking at the fish, anyway.



We stayed about an hour and a half and then we walked our frozen butts to the car.

The next morning I went to my meeting, then we packed up the car and drove back to Michigan. We got back home around 4:30pm and got everything unpacked and put away by 8:30.

It was such a busy week. We had a wonderful time visiting family, but we didn't have a moment to just sit down and relax. We came home completely beat. Next year we're going to try and do a little less traveling and a little more relaxing.