Christmas with the Family

 This past week we went up to my dad's house to celebrate Christmas with our extended family. It was crazy and chaotic with four children running around, but we had a lot of fun. We even had some snow! James liked playing with his cousins and his new play kitchen that Grandpa made for him. He didn't nap though, so he got very cranky and didn't want to open presents. Oh well...

Ellie slept through a lot of the noise and chaos and also got to be held by her great-grandma for the first time. We also got to see my cousin Nicole who recently moved here... how awesome is that?

The kids got some wonderful gifts from the family, from the play kitchen and accessories to go in it to books to clothes and some lovely momentos made by Aunt Lindy.

Overall we had a blast. But traveling with the little ones was hard... really hard. As in I was so exhausted from chasing James all day and being up with Ellie all night that I had a bit of an emotional breakdown. And it reminded us why we can't fly with them for awhile, which is a hard thing to admit. It's just too difficult for us and for them. Maybe in another year or two? :-/ Till then, car trips with a LOT of breaks is all we can handle I think. Oh well...

Merry Christmas all! We are so happy to have our family of 4 despite the exhaustion. :-)