Christmas Vacation

School finally let out on the Thursday before Christmas. It seemed crazy late, but we dealt. The pro was that I had plenty of time to get last minute shopping done while the kiddos were still at school.

We were also lucky to have both sets of our parents come to stay with us. Everyone arrived by that Thursday night. We spent Friday baking sugar cookies, shopping, and playing games. The kids really loved the pie face game.

Saturday was Christmas Eve and it was a beautiful sunny day. We ended up taking a drive to Mount Diablo State Park where we did some exploring. The views we amazing and we didn't even got up to the summit. We climbed on all kinds of fun rock formations. It was really nice to get some fresh air, even if it was a bit chilly.

We spent the rest of our afternoon/evening relaxing. The ladies and kids decorated ginger bread houses while the men finished their shopping. We hit up Chili's for dinner and then headed home for dessert, more games, and of course our Christmas jammies.

We also had to have a friendly rematch of "chubby bunnies". The kids thought it was hilarious. I only made it to about 6 marshmallows. My dad is still the undisputed champion. He could have done more but he won easily with 11.

Christmas morning was very nice. We let the kids wake us at 8:30, and amazingly they kept to the bargain. They were all really excited to see their Santa loot. It was extra fun to have all their grandparents here to watch. We spent the entire morning opening gifts and hanging out. We had delicious cinnamon rolls and then had a meat and cheese spread for lunch.

We had turkey for our Christmas dinner and it turned out delicious. Grandma Connie and the kids made us an apple pie for dessert. We ate so much that day! It was really nice to just hang out, talk, and play tons of games.

On Monday we spent most of the day playing with new toys and playing games. We ate tons of leftovers and played a bit outside in the sun. That evening we headed to the Oakland Zoo for Zoolights. The kids all liked it, and I thought it was alright. We probably won't go back, but it was fun for the one time.

Sadly, everyone left us on Tuesday morning. We said our goodbyes and then spent much of the next week trying to catch up on all the sleep that we missed when our guests were here. We did splurge and took everyone to see the Star Wars movie one day. I liked it more than I thought I would. That night Neil got sick. Thankfully he was better the next morning, but then Grace had it. We spent probably three or four days where someone didn't feel so good. At least by the next weekend everyone was a bit better.

Saturday was New Year's Eve and we partied hard. We played a few games together after dinner and then we had family time in the hot tub. The kids hardly ever use it and it is even more rare for us to get in with them. So this was a special treat.

After getting everyone dried off and back inside we had dessert and then commenced our annual glow stick dance party. We've been doing it for many years now and it is still fun. I did wish that we had someone else to share it with, but this time it was just us.

By the time we were exhausted from dancing it was 11:45pm so we plopped on the couch to watch the last few minutes on the tv as the ball was about to drop.

The next day the sun was out again so we hit up Six Flags for some fun. It was nice and not busy at all. We all had a good time.

We had the entire next week still off of school. The kids got a bit bored for sure. Claire went to a movie with a friend. We played games, slept in until 10 almost everyday, stayed up way too late, and watched tons of movies. The kids had finally finished the Harry Potter books so for Christmas we bought the set of all 8 movies. We spent 8 of our nights watching those. It was tough for me to get through all of them. They were all really long!

I also took the kids to see Sing and we also hit up Lost Worlds which is an activity place with a giant play structure. It was the first time that Claire took one look around and declared that she wasn't going to "play" there. Apparently there were too many younger kids there. She said she didn't want to be the only old one. ....And so it begins.....

Overall we had a great Christmas break. Everyone had plenty of time to sleep, relax, and play with their new toys. I was able to finish 2.5 books which was amazing. I love feeling like I have the time to read something. It was great to have all the grandparents here as well. We were sad that they couldn't stay longer. Maybe next time. Also, I dropped the ball this year on Christmas cards. So don't feel like you missed out because I just didn't get to it this year. Hopefully 2017 will be better.