Christmas Day 3

Since we could not go to PA with our family, they came to us on Saturday. My parents, sister and nephew all drove up to see us.

Jessica really wanted a fur hat and Grandmommy came through. She proceeded to scooter on her new wheels with her hat.

We played Wii and ate pot roast along with Jim's mom. We are very lucky that the parents live 90 miles away or we would never have a babysitter as they would all be vacationing together!

I think my dad was surprised I could cook!

Christmas Day

So just so you do not think I am not like the typical American mom who only makes gifts, we did splurge and get the girls the iPod Nanochromatic for Christmas.

While we thought they would be handy on our trip flying Delta, the girls played with their DS instead.

However, they were dancing with them the whole day!

Since Jim was working, we spent the day in New York. We ate Chinese with him at the hospital. While we were feeling sorry that we could not be in PA with the rest of our family, we discovered a series of 911 quilts in the atrium of the hospital where we ate dinner. One of the quilts was about a friend of Nicole's dad who died in 911. I will never be so grateful to eat dinner in the hospital again.

Christmas Day

This year Jim and I made the girls a present. These are known as Linus Blankets. They were orginally made for children in hospitals to have something of their own while they were getting better. Nicole received one from her friend Emma but she wanted another. Here are the instructions to make a no-sew polar fleece blanket (we used 2 yards of fabric)

Christmas with the Choisez's

Since we have family in two different states, Christmas is celebrated over a long period of time. Christmas Eve is celebrated in New York. Since Jim's family comes from Germany and Switzerland, we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve with them at his brother's Ken's house.

Since we both had to work, the girls went to their cousin's house, Brendan and Kelsey, to visit and get ready. They headed to four o'clock mass at their parish which I attended as well. Only problem, they were downstairs and I was up.

We met at Ken's about 5 and waited for the rest of the family to arrive. The kids opened their gifts before dinner starting with the youngest, Kelsey. We ate and then waited for Jim to arrive around 8.

That is when the fun began. The adults do a "Gift Card Exchange". Everyone buys a gift card and wraps it. Then we draw numbers to pick the order we choose our gift. From there, a lot of stealing and plotting begins but everyone has a good time.

From there, it was off to home to place cookies and hot chocolate out for Santa. I still had to wrap Jim's gifts but it was a fun evening!