More Christmases!

Well, our Christmas adventure was not even close to over after we opened presents at our house!  We packed up the girls and headed off to Grandma & Grandpa Price’s for breakfast and, of course, more presents! :)

By the time we got there, Grandma was still working on breakfast, so the girls curled up in a chair to warm up.  Well, or Laney curled up in the chair, and Audrey, who had finally really woken up, mostly just tortured her.  This is not a look of love…

Grandma outdid herself on breakfast, and it was delicious (as usual!).  And then the present opening commenced!  Laney had a lot of fun passing out presents (that was pretty much her job at all of our Christmas celebrations), and then it was time to rip and tear! :)

One of Josh’s favorite presents, from Ruth.  Pretty studly! :)

The boys all got headlamps as a fun little gift.  So, naturally, they all had to model them.  And, since they were modeling, I thought I should get a picture.  However, it was several shots like this:

…before I got one even resembling a posed picture.  Boys!

After opening presents, we played with our new toys for awhile, then loaded the car up again and headed on to Springfield for two more Christmases! 

We started at the Looten’s, where we opened presents with Josh’s Mom & Dad, Tim, Mally, and Grandma Jo.  The Wilson clan wasn’t there, since they just moved to Tennessee, so we definitely missed having them around.  But we still had a good time visiting, opening presents, and trading cookies with the Lootens!

Laney, passing out presents!  (Note she’s still in her pjs… that’s the way Christmas is supposed to be!)

Laney showing me her Tiana doll.  Funny story about this present, is that last time we were in Springfield, we were talking about Christmas as we drove around.  Suddenly, Laney piped up from the backseat “Daddy, say Tiana.” And Josh, being a good daddy, played along “Tiana.”  “Daddy, say doll.” “Doll.” “Daddy, say Tiana doll” “Tiana doll.”  “That’s what I’m getting for Christmas.”  So, of course, Grandma & Grandpa Looten had to oblige!  Obviously, she was QUITE excited about it…

After presents and lunch at the Looten’s, and some time to chill, we headed over to Grandma De & Grandpa Don’s house for one more round of visiting with family, eating, and opening presents!  This time it was with my mom’s family, who we really only get to see altogether during Christmas.  So it’s always fun to visit with them. 

Laney spent a lot of time with my cousin, Marra, playing games, and just having fun.  They were pretty cute together!   

A happy and tired Laney, all dressed up in a new outfit from Grandma Jo.  Perfect for Christmas, huh?!

We spent the rest of the weekend just hanging out with the Lootens.  Laney caught a nasty cold (as did Tim & Mally), so we didn’t go to church on Sunday.  We just spent a lot of time in our pjs, eating cookies and playing games.  Laney has started really liking to play games, as long as she is winning!  We were playing Cootie at Grandma & Grandpa Looten’s, and she really liked it.  A great game for a kid her age.  She is definitely competitive, though.  If she’s winning, it’s all happiness and smiles.  But if she’s losing (or just loses) you get this face: Which is the face Josh got on Christmas Eve, when he accidentally won a game of Chutes and Ladders!  I’m thinking that she got that competitive streak honestly, from BOTH sides.  It’ll be a good trait, as long as she learns to lose gracefully… it’s a learning process! :) 

So that was a crazy Looten Christmas!  It will be interesting to see how next year is different, since we’ll be living 8 hours away from most of our family.  Definitely still hoping to get to spend time with everyone, it may just not always be on Christmas anymore.  As far as our move goes, we are on track… Josh’s shoulder surgery went really well, so he can leave anytime.  The bank asked him to stay through the week of MLK, Jr. day, so he is planning to move on Jan 21st.  Our house is still on the market, we’ve had 4 showings so far, and we had another open house this weekend.  The house is definitely our biggest fear/worry right now, so we are hoping and praying for the right buyer.  When he moves, Josh will be living with the pastor and his wife until we can sell the house here, and buy a new one there.  So that’s the KY update… and a Christmas update, too!  Hope you all had a Christmas as filled with fun and family as we did!