First Holidays

One of the difficult things to figure out during marriage is how to divide our time between both families for the holidays. There are a couple of really big holidays during the last few months of the year that give us a great opportunity to spend time with family. But it is hard to divide our time between two different families when our family is spread pretty far across Florida. Even harder when our schedule only gives us a day or so off to celebrate holidays with family. Someone has to be at the paper to make sure those after holiday sale ads make it to your driveway Thanksgiving and Christmas morning.

This year Kris was able to get both Thanksgiving day and Christmas day off from work. With only one day off for the holidays, it was easy to decide where to go for the holidays. All of Kris' family lives within 20 minutes of one another and only about 45 minutes from us. Having just one day off gives us a perfect chance to spend time with them and be able to make it home all in the same day. The hard part is with only one day off we cannot make it to see both sides of the family. Since my family is spread across three different parts of the state more than an hour away from us, it is more difficult to visit each of them. We try to visit them all when we have a day or two off but that does not happen very often.

Unfortunately, our Thanksgiving plans did not go as well as we planned. A few unexpected events changed our family plans for Thanksgiving but we still managed to spend a little time with Kris' parents as well as his sister and her family. We were happy to see the kids and how much they had grown over the last year.

Annika - age 3

Minnie Annika

Twins Ella & Owen - age 9 months

Ella - age 9 months

Owen - age 9 months

We spent our first Christmas with Kris' family.The day started off with cookies and punch at Mom and Dad's to open our Christmas gifts. We were happy to receive many gifts to add to our display in our china cabinet. One of my favorite gifts was a picture Dad painted of our first house on a stained piece of wood. I was so surprised to see it that it almost made me cry. Dad even put our name and address on the corner. It matches well with the wooden plates Kris received of the homes that the family lived in during his childhood. It is a very touching piece and for now it completes our set of paintings of the homes. For dinner, we went over to Hannah and Olli's for a real German dinner. We enjoyed a perfectly cooked pot roast with a delicious sauce, mashed and scalloped potatoes, sweet potato and carrot casserole, and a salad. After all that food, we were so full there was no room for dessert. It was nice to spend with friends and family this Christmas. We got to see how much Ella and Owen have grown since we had seen them last just a month before. Both babies were able to crawl around. They had fun with their new toys but had even more fun with the the balls of wrapping paper. I am so amazed how tall Annika is getting. At almost 4 years of age, she stands almost half as tall as me. Pretty soon I will be looking down at her.

The painting of our first home

Aunt Eileen was making animal noises with Annika

Uncle Kris and Owen

Aunt Eileen and Owen

Owen was sitting up straight and tall...

...but he loved playing ball with Uncle Kris.

Uncle Kris had a great time too while Ella looked on

Owen thought the wrapping paper was a lot of fun.

Annika was so sad to see us go

The holidays have been great with family. We look forward to next year's holidays and all the fun with the children. We look forward to time spent with both sides of the family next year.