Christmas

This year for Christmas we drove out to Colorado Springs to spend the holidays with Jason's family. We left at 3am the first day and the kids did really well for that 12 hour drive, since the early hour threw them off, though they didn't really sleep any more. We went to bed early that night in the hotel and left at 4am the next day. The kids did great again and we made it to our first stop, around 3 pm, to see Jason's brother and his family in Amarillo, TX. who weren't able to make it to Colorado for Christmas.

Here is Cadence (16 mo.) and Austin (18 mo.) having a good time in the pack and play.

After a good 1 1/2 days visit with Thomas, Rebel, Christer, and Cadence, we drove another 6 hours to Jason's parent's house. We also got to see Jason's sister Auburn and her husband Jason and baby Mali (11 weeks).

The main chefs on Christmas Eve when we had our traditional Puerto Rican dinner. My Jason usually does the main dish, but Auburn's Jason did it this year.

Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus.

Christmas morning was earlier than usual. Victoria woke up at 6 am. I would normally have put her back to bed, but as she was throwing up, with probably the same thing Austin had the day before, and Karissa and Austin were awake because of the commotion, we decided to start looking at the stockings. Luckily, Victoria was able to open her stocking and gifts without running to the bathroom, but the rest of the day, she spent either sleeping or with her head in the toilet. Austin was better, but still very clingy and not eating much.

Here he is with one of his trains, which he loved and carried around for days.

He knew which Santa gift was his too.

He enjoyed his ride-on car, but liked his train the best.

Karissa got a doll house from Santa. She spent a good amount of time with it and Mommy had as much fun with it as she did!

Victoria got a princess carriage boom box with a microphone from Santa. The kids got the High School Musical III soundtrack from Aunt Auburn and Victoria was at least able to lie on the floor and sing a couple times, even though she was sick.

This is when she was better.

While we were there, baby Mali was blessed. She wore the same dress Karissa did.

Jason and I took Victoria skiing when she was fully recovered. She took lessons so we could enjoy some skiing, which we don't have a whole lot of in Michigan. She enjoyed it and especially enjoyed going down the hill a few times with me at the end. Austin and Karissa got to go to the Aquarium with Gramms and Abuelo and Auburn and Jason. They had a good time and Austin was less grumpy with them than he was with Mom during the other parts of the trip!

It was a great visit and we'll definitely do the drive again. The worst part was having a sick kid most of the time. Happy New Year!