Another Christmas as parents is under our belts, and I have to say- it just keeps getting better. I'll never forget the magical Christmas' I enjoyed as a child, and I always hoped to be able to pass that on to my kids. The excitement of Santa coming, the presents, the feeling of the spirit of Christmas at church on Christmas Eve, and most of all the family time, are what I loved so much- and this Christmas, we recreated that to a tee. We are so blessed to be able to have both sides of our family close enough to each other that we can spend quality holiday time with the Scribners and the Francos. Here's how our weekend went...
- We started the trip to Oakland (about a 4.5 hour drive with no stops) on Saturday afternoon, did some holiday shopping, and ended the drive right at Fairyland (Oakland's Fairy-tale park that sits by Lake Merritt and hasn't changed since I was a child... well, for 50 years, actually!) We had a pizza party with my parents that night.
- Sunday we helped my parents do some shopping and got ready for our annual neighborhood Caroling Party. It was awesome- most of our neighborhood "kids" came back home for the party (we are all grown now, but each house on our block had 4-6 kids all around the same age, and no one's parents ever moved away, so our whole neighborhhod is an extended family of a bunch of lifelong friends.) The caroling and after party were great, Kylee brought along her preschool songsheet and pretended to read it as we sang the songs.
- Christmas Eve we woke up and had Grandma and Grandpa's Christmas. The kids are FULLY enjoying being spoiled as the only Franco grandkids so far, and had a blast tearing into all their gifts. We had a big breakfast, and got ready to head to Napa for my Franco Family Christmas Eve Party. Uncle Les and Aunt Marsha hosted a great dinner, we went to the children's mass at my Grandparents old church, and went back to wish all my family a Merry Christmas. Around 8 pm we hit the road, and made GREAT time- we were back in Weaverville by midnight. We tucked the kids in their beds and spent a few hours doing our Santa duties! Kylee dictated a note to me on the ride home, and left very specific directions about all the food and drinks that were being left for Santa and his posse. After we completed our job, we got to bed around 2.
- We got to sleep in a little, Kylee got up around 7:30 and after we woke up a sleepy Owen, we had a ton of fun watching their eyes light up at all the gifts. Wes' parents, his sister, and our nephew, Taylor, joined us for brunch at our place. Then we headed to Lewiston to have a visit with the great grandparents, then dinner at Wes' parents.
The mass amounts of traveling and eating did wear us out a little- but wonderful joys of the holidays make it all worth it!
1 comment:
It sounds like you had a busy, but fun Christmas! It is really amazing to experience Christmas through the eyes of our children, isn't it? It's totally different!
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