We were so lucky for so many years to live in the same city with Chris' parents that we just became used to spending Christmas with his family, I could even say we became spoiled with everyone flying into KC! I don't remember Chris having much time off during the holidays during residency and fellowship, but we loved that Chris could work a full day and then meet us at their house afterwards.
Even though they've moved, his parents are still within a day's drive of our house, so off we went for a quick trip Christmas this year. We stopped in Manhattan, KS overnite to visit one of his brothers and his family. What a great time we had! We celebrated Chris' b-day there with Chris' favorite cheesecake--from Cheesecake Factory.
We stayed up way too late and got up way too early, Abs and Lisi were fast asleep the next day...
Try as she might Kierst can never fall asleep in the car, but she thought it would be cool to have her pic taken as well the same way, haha.
The evening we arrived Grandma read a bedtime Christmas story.
All the girls in town (Grandma, Chris' sister, Wendy and her daughter Kelsey, and my girls) went to see the Nutcracker Ballet. Doesn't Abs look like she could fit in with Wendy's family?
Chris' parents live in a large community with great ammenities. The weather was gorgeous, we spent an afternoon at the park near their home, can't believe there wasn't any snow! We hadn't been to this park before, but it was great.
Kierst's b-ball team has been seeded in the top division this year, which means that she needs to practice! Fortunately we brought b-balls with us just in case. Had we known they had tennis courts we would have brought racquets, too! (Side note here, I'm really jealous that their courts have LIGHTS, the only courts we have access to are 20 minutes away, and there are only 4 of them, ahh, I get sidetracked so easily...)
Kierst and I played HORSE, which eventually became HORSES when she was losing, which eventually became double or nothing when she lost the first game. Well, she lost double or nothing which meant she had to do the laundry by herself--not the dreaded laundry! Being the good mom that I am I let her run laps dribbling across the courts in place of doing laundry, haha! I got her drills in!
Like everywhere we go, friendly Abs made a new friend with whom she hung out the rest of the time.
Chris showed the girls some skater moves...
Christmas Eve was a "pig out" at Wendy's house. It's such a great idea-everyone gets to pick a favorite dish and then we all pig out!
Kierst wanted shrimp, Abs Swedish meatballs, Lisi Cheetos, Chris brought a cheese plate because he made all the girls' foods, as well as most of my chocolate cake with chocolate frosting--you know there's nothing else I'd choose as my favorite food!
Afterwards we did the nativity with Lisi as the angel...
Abs as Mary...
David as Joseph (side note here, David is a great cousin--he spent 3 days surrounded by our crazy girls and happily played with them--what a great guy!)...
and Kiersten as the shepherd...
Here's the shepherd pointing to the star, holding her sheep, which was actually a seal, but hey, when you're doing a nativity in a house without small children, you use whatever stuffed animals they have left!
Kelsey played the three kings--all at the same time!
Kelsey played the three kings--all at the same time! Christmas morning the girls actually slept until 7 a.m., if you can believe it! Kierst was sure that one package contained something digital, but we had warned her that we weren't buying anything too big--Santa brought us an air hockey/ping pong table (no, not a tabletop, one almost full size, full size wouldn't quite fit our basement, more about this later, see what I mean about getting distracted)...But Kierst did get fondant, a cake decorating set, and a class on cake decorating-all things she wanted.
This year Kierst really worked to buy presents for everyone in the family, she saved her allowance, did extra chores around the house, saved her "piano bucks" from her piano teacher, I think she's learned how wonderful it is to give something to others. And she's become a saavy shopper when it comes to sales--haha--that would be from me! She bought a webkinz for Abs, a bubblegum machine for Lisi, a sweater for me, and a panini press for Chris. 
This year Kierst really worked to buy presents for everyone in the family, she saved her allowance, did extra chores around the house, saved her "piano bucks" from her piano teacher, I think she's learned how wonderful it is to give something to others. And she's become a saavy shopper when it comes to sales--haha--that would be from me! She bought a webkinz for Abs, a bubblegum machine for Lisi, a sweater for me, and a panini press for Chris. 
She painted a pic for Grandma and Grandpa and Abs gave them a coupon book she'd made.
Abs was pretty excited about it.
Abs followed Kierst's example and saved up for presents for everyone, too, she went in on the sweater and panini press, bought Kierst a bottle cap necklace, and Lisi a mazin' hampster.
Abs was pretty excited about it.
Abs followed Kierst's example and saved up for presents for everyone, too, she went in on the sweater and panini press, bought Kierst a bottle cap necklace, and Lisi a mazin' hampster. Sheer joy from one sister to the other!
Santa completely surprised me--that jolly old man brought me a laptop!! He loaded it with Lightroom, Elements, my pictures, and made sure it had lots of memory and speed for graphics. He certainly knew what I wanted for Christmas, I've been on it waaay too much since opening it!
Santa completely surprised me--that jolly old man brought me a laptop!! He loaded it with Lightroom, Elements, my pictures, and made sure it had lots of memory and speed for graphics. He certainly knew what I wanted for Christmas, I've been on it waaay too much since opening it!Well, Santa also knew what Chris wanted for Christmas and had it delivered to his parents' home so that he had no clue, haha!
A rock grinder/polisher! No, not a tumbler, silly, we're some serious rock dorks here, this is a real live grinder polisher with six wheels!! Somehow I didn't capture Chris' face at the right moment, but he was pretty thrilled:)
Love this pic of Chris and his dad checking it out--you know that every time we visit they polish rock together, his parents are our partners in rockhounding!
Lisi was happy to help everyone open their presents, too!
Wendy's family came over for traditional Christmas morning apelskivers and for more opening of presents. It's been delightful to watch Wendy's family grow up, one daughter got married last summer and we got to know her husband better on this trip, we had such fun with them! 
I guess you had to be there for this one, all I can say it "For Real!"
Chris' brother and family flew in from Seattle Christmas night, and the girls had even more cousins to play with!
Chris and his younger bro.
With Chris back on the schedule the 27th, we left Sunday morning for KC. It seems that there's just never enough time to spend with family, we're just glad we had a chance to spend a little bit with them. What a Merry Christmas!
A rock grinder/polisher! No, not a tumbler, silly, we're some serious rock dorks here, this is a real live grinder polisher with six wheels!! Somehow I didn't capture Chris' face at the right moment, but he was pretty thrilled:)
Love this pic of Chris and his dad checking it out--you know that every time we visit they polish rock together, his parents are our partners in rockhounding!
Lisi was happy to help everyone open their presents, too!
Wendy's family came over for traditional Christmas morning apelskivers and for more opening of presents. It's been delightful to watch Wendy's family grow up, one daughter got married last summer and we got to know her husband better on this trip, we had such fun with them! 
I guess you had to be there for this one, all I can say it "For Real!" 
Chris' brother and family flew in from Seattle Christmas night, and the girls had even more cousins to play with! Chris and his younger bro.
With Chris back on the schedule the 27th, we left Sunday morning for KC. It seems that there's just never enough time to spend with family, we're just glad we had a chance to spend a little bit with them. What a Merry Christmas!
Abs figured out who's really Santa (see last year's post about her finding my stash of Easter chocolate), but she knows that once she stops believing the presents stop coming! We always got Santa presents growing up, even in high school, I still wrap presents to Chris and me from Santa!) 
Being "sore afraid" of the angel
After the nativity, the children sang Christmas songs. She really loves to sing!
Ever the artistically and creatively minded one, Kierst spent about 15 minutes on each cookie, making sure they looked like a real tree or stocking or snowman (she definately gets that from Chris!)
The party scene on stage. Chris managed to take a few pictures while juggling a tired Lisi at the same time-what a great hubby!
Kierst did a great job!
After the party scene we had to wait an hour for the curtain call. What did we do to keep ourselves busy? Sat in our Victorian dresses and read gossip magazines. Haha! 
I loved getting to know the other moms, we certainly had fun! Some of them are in my ballet class at the same studio, but that's another post for another time...
