After asking Isabelle if she would rather have Santa come down our chimney or Grammie's chimney, we were quickly on the road to Houston for Christmas Eve! We were greeted by Grammie and Grandpa as well as Aunt Tara, Aunt Alee and Uncle Nick who were ready for a Texas Grand Christmas. Belle was thrilled to begin the festivities and spent the next week reading our GRAND itinerary and beaming with holiday spirit!
After keeping Isabelle in our bedroom upstairs until 7:00am we finally let her down the stairs to find all of Santa's surprises. She was excited with each and every gift she received and especially loved her "REAL" guitar from Grammie and Grandpa. She was also equally excited to pass out all of the gifts she had purchased and wrapped by herself and was more than eager to help everyone put them to use right away. We enjoyed a yummy Christmas dinner as well as our traditional Nativity puppet show before putting a very tired and overjoyed toddler to bed.
The next several days we enjoyed playing games, seeing movies, ice skating, working on puzzles, shopping, bowling, Grandpa's birthday, making funnel-cakes and anything/everything else we wanted to do. Since Jelly was actually 20 years younger than the next family member there we played with her all day and then put her to bed early and enjoyed some adult time in the evenings. Ben luckily was able to fairly easily close two deals over the holidays so even he was able to join in all of the traditional fun!
Although at moments it seemed like we were running a hospital with Dad's liver disease, Tara's eye-surgery, Belle's ear infections and me being 7 months pregnant, the rest of the crew was able to keep the festivities moving and we never skipped a beat. We were even able to meet up with Ben's parents and Uncle Jake and Aunt Katrina and Gordon for a few moments of Christmas cheer while they were passing through Houston to finalize a few more wedding plans for this month's big event!
We rang in the New Year with our friends the Meiers and a bbq and fire outside before a wild game of bunco. Little Jelly enjoyed her small fireworks and counting down to the New Year while banging pots and pans with a wooden spoon at about 7:45pm. Lucky for us, she never questioned that it wasn't actually midnight and she just assumed the rest of us went to bed shortly too!
It was a wonderful week long of parties and games and even though we were able to stay in Houston for the entire holiday, Isabelle still cried to leave her favorite place! We ended the fun with a New Year treasure hunt and Belle putting out the Grand Christmas torch before we packed the car as full as we could and made the trek home. We are thankful to everyone for all of their generous gifts this year and especially loved spending this special time of year with the ones we love!
4 comments:
It's so fun to read hear all about your holidays spent in Houston with family. You are such a good writer Amy. Your posts are always so fun to read. I love seeing all the fun pictures of Belle on Christmas morning. That pink guitar rocks!
MMMMmmmm Funnel Cakes! What a wonderful holiday! Belle is so beautiful, and so grown up! I loved your post!
Wow, it looks like you guys had so much fun! We sure miss you guys.
oh puzzles! Remember how we used to do puzzles ALL the time? and then we glued them and put them up all over the walls? I miss doing puzzles with you and Ben :)
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