Our Strong Family

Three Christmases down and two to go. We spent the weekend in Seattle celebrating Christmas with family. Per my usual, I failed to take photos at each stop.

Christmas #1:

We arrived in Fall City on Friday night and spent the evening with Cindi, Chris, Keri, and Adam. We stuffed the stockings, put out the presents, and stayed up too late. Saturday morning Jes and Steve came out and we had our family Christmas (minus Miles who was napping through the entire thing, poor boy). The boys were so excited to open their mountain of presents which had all of the things on their lists and more. We just loved spending a whole day with the family. Thank you Cindi and Chris for a wonderful Christmas day. After gifts the boys watched Madagascar Christmas while we packed and cleaned ourselves up for Christmas Eve with all the aunts and cousins.

Christmas #2:

On the way to the Christmas Eve party.

We made our way down to Maple Valley for the annual party. There were lots of people, lots of dogs, lots of food, and LOTS of gifts for the kids. Santa came which was the highlight of the evening for the little kids. Evan sat right down on Santa's lap and they talked about Jesus and what a good brother and son he is. He told Santa that he wanted Lightning McQueen and Miles wanted a "choo choo" train and that they wanted Star Wars. The first gift that Evan opened was Lightning McQueen and the first gift Miles opened was a choo choo. WOW! Miles was too scared to go near Santa until after he opened his train and then he walked right up to him and said "daaan dooo" (aka: thank you). Maddeck was the oldest of the great grandchildren so was ask to be Santa's helper which he proudly accepted. He wore the santa hat and helped pass out all the other gifts. It was a free for all as all the kids ripped into their gifts. The boys were SPOILED with all the things they love and wanted for Christmas. They were even spoiled with things they didn't even know they wanted. We were once again humbled and blessed by the generosity of our family. We made it to Steve and Jesica's and were in bed around 11 PM (late night number 2 for our little boys). Miles had a rough night and Kyle was up with him about a dozen times. Maddeck and Evan slept in until 8:30 AM to make up for some of their sleep debt. We hit the ground running and again packed up and cleaned up to leave for Grandma Strong's house in Tacoma.

Christmas #3:

We spent the morning and early afternoon eating brunch and visiting with Kyle's cousins and their kids. Tim and Karen were away this Christmas so it was Norma and her grand-kids and great-grand-kids. The little boys handed out Christmas cards to everyone and our boys opened their gifts from Grandpa Tim and Grandma Karen. The boys were completely exhausted by 1:30 when we decided we needed to pack up and head out. We got a photo of all the great-grand-kids with their Grandma Strong which was really special.

Off we went to Issaquah to spend the night at Brian and Laura's house. We stayed up late, once again, and waited for Elisa and Nathan to get in from San Diego. We ate a second dinner when they arrived and we watched part of a Christmas movie before heading to bed. The boys slept hard through the night, even Miles (yahoo!!). In the morning Kyle repacked the van and managed a way to fit all 7 people in our van with luggage and loot. We hit the road the road and made it home quickly because there was NO SNOW!! We did not enjoy a white Christmas this year and the forecast isn't calling for any snow either. Such a bummer!

Christmas #4 TBD:

We still need to have our family Christmas with our boys. I think in the future we will celebrate before we leave so they know the joy of waking up to Christmas at home with our family. Even if we have to do Christmas a week early it would be better than waiting until January. Kyle is working this week so Christmas morning will have to wait. Not what I envisioned as I went Christmas shopping and wrapped their presents but we will make it work.

Christmas #5 December 30th:

We will have Christmas with the Head family on Friday. We plan to have our annual puzzle war, eat, relax, and open stockings and gifts with the seven grand-kids. Normally we play in the snow all weekend but we will have to come up with a plan B since we don't have the snow this year.