My trip started Saturday....and if you want the horrible story of what happened to me while trying to get to the airport you will have to ask me personally......UGH!!!! I won't vent here but it was horrible!
Anyway, all is well that ends well right.....I finally arrived in Chicago a little after one in the morning on Sunday, and was able to hit the hay by 2:30. Luckily for me, ;-) I was asked to speak to my mother's young women as a guest speaker, so 9 am church came really FAST! I think my lesson was coherent....then I spent the rest of Sunday trying to take a nap to catch up on the lack of sleep, and failed miserably (Why can't one sleep when they need and want to?!?! I hate that).
Monday morning, bright and early, I was up at 5ish to shower and pack for our trek to my younger brother John's home in Pennsylvania. I was extremely excited that we were going to John's for Christmas because:
1. It had been over a year since I had seen John, Nicole and their kids.
2. It had been years since we had a Christmas together.
3. I had never been to his current home before.
AND
4. I had only driven through Pennsylvania and was excited to see where he lived and what it was like.
John and Nicole's Christmas tree.
The 12 hour trek was quite interesting! It was FREEZING!!!!!! The roads were icy and many cars were off the freeway. I don't think I have felt that cold EVER!!!
Luckily, when we reached Pennsylvania we saw three cute little heads peeking out the window. Once we unloaded we could see the three boys jumping up and down! I couldn't help but be excited to see them and give them huge hugs and kisses!
Immediately, the boys were all over us. We ate, unpacked and enjoyed a few moments together before we hit the hay.
Joshua playing on Grandpa while he watches the T.V. Notice Grandma is out like a light, too much excitement after a long drive!
Later, I noticed Grandpa in his "typical pose," head in hand while he is working on his crossword puzzles. I just had to document it.
Christmas Eve was a rainy day. The rain just kept coming and coming and coming. As you can see below it rained A LOT! This is a view out the back of John's town home.
Which was a perfect day for lounging around,
watching a bit of T.V.
playing games (LOTS OF GAMES....I am so impressed how many games William can play in a row! I LOVE games and own TONS and TONS of them....but even he has me beat on game attention! It was so fun!)
Side note: When we started playing Trouble Joshua was in the seat next to me and William was at the head of the table. As the game progressed the boys slowly (and ever so slyly) inched their way over. It wasn't until this point, where I couldn't see the board any longer, that I realized they had literally moved into my lap......they are so cute!!!
We really enjoyed the company of each other....
John was even able to come home from the hospital fairly early and just relax a bit before the craziness began.
Nicole then offered me the opportunity to make cookies with the boys for Santa. I was really excited and very appreciative of Nicole for letting me do this!
You may be wondering why the KitchenAid is on the chair....well it goes back to my game with William and Joshua. After starting, I quickly decided it was better that I bring the KitchenAid down to their level instead of having them standing on chairs, literally trying to climb over me to see what was happening.
Don't worry I was CONSTANTLY reminding them (only for my sanity) that they couldn't touch the machine!
I made the chocolate cookie recipe I posted earlier on my blog. This recipe requires 5 minutes of beating time......Michael and Joshua lost interest but William stuck around basically the whole time to watch.
Then we started making the cookies. I tried to show Michael and William how to take a tablespoon of dough and slightly roll it in the palm of their hands and drop it on the cookie sheet.....well, I will stick to regular classroom teaching because.....when I looked up at Joshua---who got my attention when he said, "Is this right?".... his hands were COVERED in cookie dough. He apparently took out some dough and instead of rolling the dough, he smashed it as hard as he could until it had oozed out on the other sides of his hands.
Note the unsuspecting Winnie in this picture taken by Grandma----obviously unaware of Joshua's little hands grabbing cookie dough....I had told him that I would help him after I showed the other two boys what to do.......boy am I not a mom yet!
When the cookies were placed in the oven for baking, the boys went over to admire the stockings Nicole hung.
To get them to pose somewhat decently, I told them I would take two pictures....one normal one and one crazy one......as seeing in the picture below, making a crazy pose was very exciting!
After taking these pictures, Grandma gave the boys their new Christmas Pajamas (this is a Christmas tradition that I enjoyed all growing up).
They quickly went to change and then came down for pictures. The picture below was the best "normal" one I was able to get---Christmas is too exciting!
And of course below is their crazy picture.
They were so fun to watch!!!
Then we all sat down to read the Christmas story from the scriptures. This is always my favorite time! It was so fun to hear the boys read the scriptures about Jesus Christ. It was special to feel the spirit bear witness again to my heart that Jesus truly is the Christ, and that what I was reading was/is true.
I felt such a sweet spirit and felt such a deep joy to hear John and Nicole bear witness to their boys that Jesus really did come to earth. I realized again how important it is that children hear their parents not only read scriptures to & with them, but also that they are able to hear their parents testify of what they know to be true. I know the witnesses and testimonies born to me by my parents have often helped me throughout my life.
Thanks John and Nicole for providing the opportunity to contemplate the true meaning of Christmas, it was very neat!
After reading of Christ's birth, we turned on the T.V. and watched the PBS Tabernacle Choir Special. The music was fabulous! At first Joshua was sitting right next to me (between Grandma and me). Then, as the show progressed, he started to slip closer and closer to me. He then wedged his back behind mine. I thought it was cute so I took a picture.
I then started to crochet a blanket while enjoying the show. As I worked on my blanket, I didn't realize that Joshua was continuing to squeeze his way behind me. It wasn't until my back started to ache a bit (because I was sitting so far up on the couch and hunching over my blanket) that I realized that he had successfully squeezed all the way behind me!
Here is the picture to prove it. He is so funny. He is such a cuddle bug and loves to crawl all over you!
Of course when the camera came out, William wanted a picture with Aunt Winnie as well.
Christmas morning was absolutely BEAUTIFUL (now you must remember I grew up in Southern California where there was/is NO snow on Christmas morning).
I looked outside and saw the sun rising over the horizon and thought....this is a perfect Christmas day! ;-)
As you can see below, all of the rain and water were gone.
No snow to be found on the ground!
John was the first to be up and moving (at least to my knowledge); I think he was more excited than his boys....seeing that he beat them awake! ;-)
I awoke to him opening up the cupboards and getting stuff out to make pancakes.
John and Nicole made a wonderful breakfast before presents were open.
This is me discovering Joshua eating a cookie before his pancakes. I guess he didn't want the left over (half eaten) cookie Santa left to be wasted.
You can tell he was really sorry he didn't wait until after he ate his pancakes. ;-)
The boys were often found wondering over to their stockings and the presents Santa brought.
Only to be told to get back in the kitchen....kids will always be kids. It made me excited for them! It reminded me of when my siblings and I were little kids.....and my parents telling us to get back to the kitchen!
But they ate none the less!
Look at John being such a good dad and spreading butter on his kids pancakes!
When all had a wonderful breakfast (thanks John and Nicole), the boys stormed over to their stockings.....
John was trying to get his video camera out so the boys had to wait just a few moments more...which I think William thought was eternity!
Then the stockings were brought down....
Since Joshua is the youngest, he was able to see what Santa put into his stocking first.
I wish I had a better picture of his face when he turned his stocking upside down and all the candy came out! He was so excited!
Then William and Michael took their turns emptying their stockings.
Michael checking out his activity book he found in his stocking. He is such a smart little boy!
Here you can see them checking out their new Star War action figures. It brought back tons of memories of my brothers' Christmases years ago!
The boys were so polite in sharing with one another what they got! Then the adults emptied their stockings!
The boys really wanted to help grandma and grandpa empty their stockings.
Everyone loves getting Christmas socks!!!
Grandma making the boys laugh!
As with Grandpa!
After stockings were opened, it was time for the boys to open the boxes Santa left.
I actually videoed what happened. The boys, ESPECIALLY William, wanted a Wii for Christmas. As a matter of fact, the boys wrote (with Nicole's help) a letter to Santa on Christmas Eve reminding him of their desire to have a Wii.
They were SO excited when they opened the box to find a Wii!!!!
Then we moved to the tree and opened the gifts we had for each other and from other family members.
If you notice on the left corner Michael holding a snowflake bag in his hand. He was so cute. He brought that over to me. I opened it up and found an apple cloth coaster. He had saved up his money and had gone to his school's Secret Santa Shop and purchased presents for everyone! He is such a sweet boy!
When Nicole opened up a present that was a game the boys got so excited! These boys LOVE to play games, which is quite ironic because out of all my siblings John was the one who liked playing games the least!
Here is William opening his hot wheels from me ;-)
William LOVES cars and racing them around!
Nicole had told Grandma and me that Joshua loves any type of toy that can pick up or grab things, so I went out and got him this "claw."
He immediately became the "Christmas paper-picker-upper." He was having a blast just walking around picking up all the paper that was discarded on the carpet! Notice he is completely oblivious that Grandpa is opening his pens he got from his kids.
This is a picture of the boys helping Joshua open his present!
Nicole had found a whole bunch of Mr, Mrs. & baby Potato Heads (I didn't even know they have baby Potato Heads!?!?! I am so out of the loop!).
Joshua was so excited, as well as his brothers!
Nicole had organized them into arms, legs, heads, hats, clothes, ears, etc.
I never knew there were so many options!
There was even an outfit that changed Mr Potato head into Santa Claus!!!
All the boys played with these for awhile, creating tons of different people.
Here Grandpa is watching the boys having fun.
Here is Joshua opening a gift from Nicole's parents. It was a race track thing that he absolutely loved!
Here John is getting in on the fun!
As siblings and family, we all pitched in and purchased 3 numbered photos of Mount Timpanogas and had them framed for our parents (Mount Timpanogas is a mountain that is very much loved by my parents--and our family---my dad even proposed to my mom on Mount Timpanogas!).
Here are a few pictures I captured of Dad opening one. Unfortunately, Grandma was sitting directly next to me and I didn't get a picture of her opening some....but I do have a picture of you mom with them, so no worries!
When present opening had ended,
and Joshua had picked up every last piece of paper on the floor,
I arranged the boys' gifts (as best as I could remember) and had them take pictures. This may seem weird to some, but this was a Christmas tradition I enjoyed when I was growing up. It is actually quite nice to have; we have used Christmas pictures often to identify items and to run down memory lane.
Joshua
William
Michael
John, Nicole & family stash. John had gone to take a nap by this time and I really am not sure why I didn't get Nicole in this picture.....sorry Nicole I really feel bad!
A close up of their gifts, so they can refer to them in the future if needed.
Grandma and Grandpa
And yes, my mom helped me document my Christmas as well!
Then the boys went downstairs to set up their car tracks and race cars. We all had a blast!
That night we were able to eat a fabulous meal prepared by John and Nicole (why I didn't take any pictures of the beautiful food is beyond me---sorry guys!). John fried a special marinaded turkey for us he prepared all by himself; which was absolutely delicious! Nicole made amazing sweet potatoes (I still need to get the recipe from you Nicole---it really was the best I have EVER tasted!!!), rolls, salad, asparragas with peppers and stuffing--with and without sausage (I hope I remembered everything, there was so much to eat!!!).
Nicole asked me if I would make the green bean casserole, since it is a favorite of mine, which I was excited to do....but somehow I think Nicole did most of the work. Nicole provided us with such fabulous meals! When we would ask if she needed help, she would always say she was fine....and she was! She definitely knows what she is doing in the kitchen! Thanks Nicole for amazing food......I gained five pounds! Now if that isn't a sign of great cooking I don't know what is!
Nicole's Parents, Brother & Sister-in-law and Brother were also able to come over and visit. They were so kind as to bring me an air matress to sleep on! It was great to have them visit. At first Nicole's father called me Ilene, which was quite flattering since Ilene is four years younger than me and absolutely beautiful! Believe it or not, I am actually quite shy at first with individuals I hardly know.......but luckily Nicole's dad was so sweet and made me feel really at ease. It was so fun to talk with Nicole's dad and mom. While we were visiting, Nicole's dad talked about the wonderful lights that can be seen in Hershey (close to where John and Nicole live). I asked my parents if they wouldn't mind running me over to see them really quick so I could take a few pictures.....I thought it would be the perfect time, Nicole's family would have time to visit and I would get pictures without having to drag everyone along! I thought my students would get a kick out of the following pictures. Sadly, most of them didn't turn out because it was such a dark night, but at least a few made it!
I want to live on Chocolate Ave!
This is what it really looked like....not as much light as you see above, it was just harder to read so I changed modes on my camera to get the words clearer on the one above.
Unfortunately, when we got there, we drove forever and yet were unable to find the lights Nicole's dad was talking about (We later found out they were shut off on Christmas---weird I know)! So on our way back home, my dad took me over to see George Washington's Tavern.
Apparently this is where George Washington stayed way back when (if you look really hard you can actually read the history on the plaque below). I am excited to be able to show this to my students in February when we learn about George, thanks dad for taking me here!
Sadly, however, by the time we got back Nicole's family had left. I really felt bad that I wasn't able to say goodbye to them, they were so kind and fun to be around! I really thought they would still be there on our return. Hopefully we will have a chance to meet another time! Nicole you will really have to let your dad know how sweet I thought he was!!
Thanks Nicole, John, Michael, William, Joshua and Mom & Dad for the wonderful gifts and memories! They will not be forgotten! I love you all so very much!
The following are pictures of the next day.....I will be adding to them as soon as I can, but at this point I am out of time and Nicole asked to have the pictures I took......
Friday
Then my dad was so nice and took me back down to Hershey to get a few pictures I wanted.
Here is Cocoa Ave.
I loved the street lights found all around Hershey, PA. I can't wait to show my students!
