Christmas Eve with Friends

Often I get asked, "How do you stand not being with your family at the holidays?" In all honesty, it never occurred to me that I was without family. For as long as I can remember we have spent holidays with our military family. I love it. The atmosphere is so different than with real family...plus, you can actually pick this family :-).

This year we spent Christmas Eve with the Walthall family. Anthony and Thomas were at St Paul in Leavenworth together. I love how the Army does that for us. And yes, it is another family with all male offspring. We drank gluhwein and many other beverages. Ate some roast. And just generally enjoyed each others company.

Children's Museum

We do not have a Children's Museum in Savannah. I had to go all the way to NJ to find one. We went to the Paramus Children's Museum and had a blast. They had a ton of role playing events.



Dinosaur Dig: Anthony used his art skills to draw a dienonychus (they have a terrible claw on their feet). Yeah, I didn't know that either. Gabe chose to be a paleontologist.



Fire Truck: Gabe is using his imaginary hose to put out the fire, and the face he is making is for the sound effects of the water. Of course Anthony got to drive the fire truck.




Construction:


Knights/Princesses: They were off to fight the bad knights, but I thought Gabe sorta looked like the bad knight in all black.



Chef: The boys made us all dinner. Anthony insisted on something healthy before the cookies could be served. The best was seeing the McDonald's play stuff and having the boys say that it wasn't healthy food.


Astronauts:


Arts and Crafts:



There were a ton of other options, but to be honest, I was worn out after all of that.

Christmas Part Deux

The Rossi Family Christmas Story...


So we leave on the 15th for New Jersey. We drove through North Carolina and got to see some friends (Ed, Christi, and Maggie). That was the true highlight of the drive. I miss having Christi around. We were pregnant together, I with my 3rd and her with her 1st. It helped me remember the excitement of being pregnant. Anyways, we had a great steak dinner then headed on to Fredricksburg VA. We made great time and the drive was easy. And then...

We woke up to snow. Beautiful. The kids were excited beyond belief. We should have just stayed put...but we didn't. Instead we thought, "We'll just drive to NJ...it won't be that bad." Nevermind that it is constant city the whole way fraught with individuals who have no clue how to drive in the snow. Oh and a windshield wiper that flew off the car. Oh and we had a baby that screamed if we were under 30 mph, which was the entire time. Oh the joy! Such a merry way to start the holidays. Eight hours later and only 150 miles of the 280 under our belt, we stopped for lunch.

Finally, we get to NJ. After sleeping and resting for a couple of days, we began Christmas Part 2 with the Rossi side of the family.

Of course the boys got a ton of stuff. Rob and I also received nice things. Here are a few pics of the boys and their stuff.

Singing Angels

My parents were lucky enough to be here for the boys' Christmas Pageant at school. They had so much fun singing and then eating cookies. The videos are not uploading, so I will work on those later.

Christmas with the Johnson Family

My parents came to visit to help with the house and celebrate Christmas with the boys. I think mostly they wanted to celebrate Christmas and spoil the boys...but who can blame them.

My mom and I took the boys to see Santa. We went to the Bass Pro Shop and it was great. Can't wait to go next year when we are not swamped with projects. William was not impressed with Santa. Anthony wanted 2 rifles (one for him and one for Gabe). Gabe asked for 'The Battle of Endore' LEGOS set.



Then later we opened gifts with my folks and brother. The best of all was that my mom found a bunch of costumes for the boys. They love imaginary role playing. The gift was a huge hit.

Hometown Parade

We went to the Richmond Hill Christmas Parade. It was not quite as small town as the Leavenworth St Patrick's Day Parade last year...but it was pretty small town. The consensus among the adults is the gluhwein would have made the event much better. Next year I know to bring Bailey's for the free hot chocolate.

This is our town hall...quite picturesque.


Before the parade, the boys were just too cute in the back of the car.


Waiting for the parade to start


This was my favorite 'float' and yes, that is a train going through the middle of the parade.