Christmas at Gammy and Pop-Pop's

Justin and his Pop-Pop

 After spending two very long days in the car driving up north, we finally arrived just in time to meet Ryan's family at the mall for a quick visit with Santa.  Since the kids already saw Santa in Oklahoma, we did not dress them in their nice Christmas clothes.  It was cousin Lydia's turn to sit on Santa's lap. 

Need-less-to-say her performace from last year was repeated again this year.  Lydia does not like Santa.  She screamed at the top of her lungs but we were able to get a picture of her trying to slide off Santa's lap while red in the face. 

Don't worry, I swore to myself when I had kids, I'd never post screaming Santa pictures, so you'll just have to use your imagination. 

Olivia and her Gammy

 That day also happened to be Ryan's Dad's Birthday, the big 54.  We celebrated by going out to eat then heading back home for gifts.  I think Pop-Pop's favorite gift was just having his three grandchildren under one roof.  The picture below is the only one of the entire visit with the three kids on the couch.  Neither wanted to smile or sit still when we tried a mini-photo shoot.  We spent just one night in MN before heading over to Hudson for Christmas with Nana and Papa before coming back to MN to stay for the remainder of our vacation.  That's the way it works in this family, we go to which house has the most days off in a row then come back.  It seems to work just fine, for now.

The Three Munchkins

Santa made two trips to see our kids this year, so before opening gifts with Aunt Sarah, Uncle Travis and Cousin Lydia, our little family of four celebrated Christmas morning with Santa in MN.  Both kids loved opening their gifts and wanted to play with everything right away.  It was really fun to watch their faces light up as they opened something special.  Olivia asked Santa this year for a pair of rollerskates and boy did he deliver.  Her face had the biggest smile, it was priceless.

Our Christmas

That afternoon, once everyone was assembled, we opened the rest of the gifts from everyone.  Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Weimer were very generous this year.  Olivia received a Disney Deluxe Talking Princess Kitchen in which she plays with at least twice a day.  Justin got a Mega Blocks Fire Truck comeplete with a siren.  He loves to ride it and put things in the extra large bucket.  He even loves to push Olivia around on it one handed, and yes, he's that strong.

Olivia playing mommy with her Baby Alive-All Gone

 We really didn't do much while in MN since we stayed up way to late and the kids were getting sleep deprived.  We all headed out to the mall the day after Christmas, not so much as to shop, but to let the kids run around the play area to expel their sugar cookie energy.  Ryan and I didn't even go on our annual date night or see a movie.  We enjoyed spending time with family and can't wait for our Thanksgiving Extravaganza 2011 in VA.

Justin and his new basketball game

The Collins/Cagle Christmas