Thursday, December 30, 2010

Christmas in Charlotte


















This Christmas was a huge event for us...our first Christmas ever spent in Charlotte and away from Michigan. We have been very excited about it, but of course sad to not be participating in traditions and with our families. That said, we had a really great Christmas and were glad to be home! Both of our girls were deemed healthy by Christmas and that was the biggest gift we could have asked for. My sister Vanessa also flew in from Vegas and spent a week with us which was a huge treat!!

Poor Auntie V arrived in Charlotte 4 hours early and I did not check my phone. So after a red eye flight, she spent the wee morning hours waiting for us to wake up and come get her from the airport (oops!). That was not a great way to start a trip, but I promise it got better. We spent most of our time at home playing, dancing, and baking with little trips of shopping in there and even a trip to see the singing bears uptown. We also were able to go to Next Level Church's Christmas Eve service, which we are sad we normally have to miss. Santa came and left a whole bunch of fun stuff for everyone and it was fun doing the Santa thing with Clare. Everytime someone asked her what she wanted for Christmas from Santa she would tell them "baby Jesus." It was very sweet and I love that she knows the true meaning of Christmas is to celebrate Jesus' birthday, even if sometimes her stories get crossed :)

The Ho family came over on Christmas Day with their son, Ayden (Clare's little boyfriend and best buddy) to celebrate with us. It was such a blessing to have another family to have dinner with and just enjoy the day. We are so blessed that even far away from family we have friends that hold such a dear place in our hearts.

Christmas night Charlotte got a lot of snow dumped on it. Being from Michigan I really had no desire to see snow this Christmas, but hey it made a lot of people smile...including my 2 year old. She woke up and she asked immediately if she could play in it. Her and LD spent a lot of time playing, making snow angels and even sledding down our hill in her plastic pool...while inside poor Auntie V was trying desperately to figure out how she would get home. The snow delayed her trip by 2 days...too bad right?!?! We were thrilled to have her a few extra days. And her extra days meant she was able to spend a day with my parents.

The day after Christmas my parents arrived and it was seriously Christmas part 2! They didn't pull in til 2am, but we put all the presents under the tree and did it all again. Santa showed up AGAIN and we got very spoiled! We had 3 great days with them playing with our new toys and seeing the bears...again...nothing gets old for a 2 year old! This morning they headed out and we sent out the signal that Christmas was officially over for us. We cleaned up all the decorations, organized the toys, and most importantly dumped every peice of sugar from the house. SIGH..and it feels good!
















No comments: