Christmas Part 2: Columbus

We arrived home from our Richmond trip on Christmas Eve just in time to get dressed and go to our church's Christmas Eve service.  Mamaw and Papaw Thompson came over and we spent Christmas Day with them.  The kids are at a great age for Christmas.  Eliana particularly was giddy with excitement about Christmas. 

The 4 of us at church

Mamaw & Papaw with the kiddos

E in her Christmas coat in front of our tree at home

J with his train Christmas sweater

A rare picture of just the two of us!

Christmas morning - E enjoyed helping us all open presents

J and Papaw opening a gift

Can you tell if J was excited about his new tractor?

J enjoying one of his gifts - a playmat with city streets

E using one of her new baby bottles for her doll

Christmas Part 1: Richmond

We spent "Part 1" of Christmas in Richmond, Virginia with the Jones family the weekend before Christmas.  In addition to our gift exchange, we met Baby Theo and spent a lot of time relaxing, eating, playing games and watching movies.  We also were able to get outside some, as the temperature reached into the 70's during our visit!

Thanks, family, for a fun visit and for all the great gifts!

Eliana modeling an apron (one of her new gifts)

Mom & Kara enjoying a restaurant's outdoor patio

Happy Eliana with her Mommy

All 11 of us!

Mom with her 4 grandkids

Theo sleeping with his Daddy

Aunt Elizabeth with her new nephew

Eliana enjoyed holding Theo

The 3 older cousins with cookies featuring their initials

The 3 older cousins held hands at this moment unprompted

Gramma reading with Eliana

Merry Christmas!

"Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight"

Have a blessed Christmas!  Enjoy a few of the pictures we took for our Christmas card.  We used the first one, but there were several other great shots, which were taken at a nearby church:

 

Christmas Fun

We've had fun over the past couple weeks doing several Christmas-related activities:

At COSI (science museum) for Eliana's birthday, so we got a picture of her
at their Christmas display.

Columbus Zoo Wildlights

With the Zoo's mascot

Wildlights

Judah checking out the camels at our church's "Night in Bethlehem"

Eliana hanging with the camels

We also went to a drive-through light display.  Pictures were hard in the dark,
but this one turned out well.

Visiting Santa!

Eliana's preschool Christmas program.  She's in the back row.

Shaking her jingle bells in the show

The kids making a gingerbread house with Mamaw

This shot captures Judah's excitement to be helping with the project

The final gingerbread house

A Message from the Kids

Happy Birthday Uncle Kevin!

Happy Birthday to Uncle Kevin!  Hope it's a great day!

I also want to acknowledge that today would have been Dad's 58th birthday.  We miss you Dad!

Like Father, Like Son

We got our pictures taken last week for our Christmas card, and one of the shots we got of Judah resembles a shot of his father when he was Judah's age:

Eliana's Birthday

At around 7:30am on Thursday morning, Eliana ran out of her room and proudly announced, "it's my birthday!!"  She didn't stop smiling the rest of the day.  We had a low-key party with just the 4 of us, but we still tried to make it as special as possible.  She got strawberry pancakes for breakfast, and got to choose her dinner (she went with pizza).  She opened several presents and cards from us, grandparents, great-grandparents, and aunts and uncles.  After presents, we had cake and ice cream.  To cap off the birthday fun, Eliana got to stay up late and watch the first hour of "Sound of Music Live."  All in all, it was quite a day of fun for our special 4-year old.

Eating pizza - her choice for birthday dinner

Opening a present with little brother looking on

Roller skates: her present from Mommy & Daddy

4-year old princess

Blowing out her candles