Josh and I left on Christmas eve to go spend Christmas with our families. On the way to my mother in law's house we stopped to visit Josh's grandparents. Josh's cousin came over & we stayed for a few hours. It was really good to see them all. It's nice to live so close to his grandparents. We're only about 2.5 hours away from them now. Since they're getting older, it's a lot harder for them to travel. They still come down to spend Thanksgiving with Josh's mom every year but other than that, their trips are pretty limited. It's on the way home anyway, so we try to stop by each time we go home to visit. Josh's grandma hasn't been doing very well & I think she's been kind of depressed because of some of her health issues. When they were in town for Thanksgiving she made several comments about it being her last trip. It was really hard to hear her talk like that. She was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's & it's been really hard on everybody. She seems to perk up a lot when we visit :-)
We got in late that night but we stayed up with Josh's mom to catch up a little bit. Christmas morning started bright & early for us. We got up for breakfast & to open gifts with Josh's mom's side of the family. His step brother & his wife were there with our little nephew, EJ. Christmas is so much more fun with little kids around. They get so excited, it's adorable. Next, we went to my mom's house to celebrate with my side of the family. My mom always does lunch & it's pretty much like Thanksgiving again :-) We have turkey, ham, all the sides & desserts. I love it! My niece was there so it was entertaining as always. She got a little four wheeler this year. We took turns riding with her after lunch & gifts. I think it can go up to 30 or 40 but it has a switch that you can turn on to control the speed. I think it goes down to 3-5 mph or something like that. After my mom's we went over to Josh's Aunt Gayle's to visit with his dad's side of the family. I love going to visit with them for the holidays. She is a great cook & she makes the BEST dressing EVER!!! Luckily, we got there before everyone left. We haven't seen a lot of them since our wedding & some of them even before that. It was really great to catch up with everyone. Every other year they go on a cruise as a group. They invited us to come in 2012. We're going to think about it but we're saving for something really big so I don't know if we'll be able to make it this time :-) We visited some more with my mom, my dad & Josh's dad before we went back to my MIL's house...that's 5 separate stops not including Josh's mom's! That's why I'm always exhausted during the holidays!
This is me with Natalia on her four wheeler
It was supposed to snow Christmas night but I didn't really expect it to. We're from Southeastern NC & when it does snow, it's usually mixed with a ton of sleet & we get like 2 inches max. It rarely snows in December. Apparently we had another white Christmas back in 1988 or something like that. Of course I don't remember it. We were planning on going to Josh's childhood church but when we got up we had like 4 inches of snow! Of course EVERYTHING, including church was shut down. We made an awesome wolf snow man! After it warmed up a little & the roads looked a little clearer we went over to my dad's to spend some more time with him & build a snowman with Natalia. This was her first big snow so I wanted to make sure she got a chance to make a big snow man! She wanted a snow woman so Josh gave her boobs...you can't really tell in the picture.
I'm supposed to be kissing the wolf & Josh is supposed to be beating him up.
With our nepher EJ. His parents are UNC fans...this is for them :-)
Uncle Josh showing Natalia how to make a snow ball.
Natalia's first snow woman. She wanted to make funny faces.Unfortunately, this was about all the time we got to spend with our families during our trip. We left early the next day to go to Florida. I'm usually ready to leave home to go to Raleigh or somewhere else. This time was different. I'm not sure if it's because I don't get to spend as much time with my family or what. We'll be taking a trip with my Dad, niece & sister at the end of Feb. but I'm not sure when we'll get to visit with the rest of the family again. Maybe that's what it was :-/
This was our first married Christmas & it was absolutely amazing. As crazy & busy as it was, I wouldn't have it any other way. I love spending the holidays with our families. It's worth the stress, but I'm glad we only have to do it 2 times a year!
As always, we didn't take enough pictures...We didn't take any with our whole families :-/ I'll have to remember next time. This is one with some of my favorites :-)
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