Christmas Eve

The night before Christmas Eve we drove to my Grandpa's house and spent a few hours with him, my mom, step dad, and brother. The kids had a blast with so many people to pay attention to them, and Chris and I actually had a few minutes to sit down and talk to people.
We spent the night at a hotel and Alyssa thought that was fantastic. All day Sunday she was asking all kinds of questions about hotels and what was in them. So she was excited to see the hotel and explore. We tried to take the kids swimming on Sunday night at the hotel, the pool was heated but the air temperature wasn't warm, so the kids (and us) got cold really quickly. After about 15 minutes Colin's lips were blue and he was shaking so we had to get out.
 After a warm shower we put on pj's and watched a movie before bed.

On Christmas Eve morning we got up to find that Santa had paid for our hotel room. I don't know who the kind soul was that paid for our room but it was greatly appreciated. We then met my mom and step dad in the lobby for breakfast. The kids had were excited to see them and went to their room after breakfast to help pick out ear rings for my mom and check out their room.

After hanging out at the hotel for a bit we decided to go walk around Wal-Mart before heading back to grandpa's house. While at Wal-Mart Alyssa decided that everyone needed presents. I told her I had gotten them presents and they were at Grandpa's house. She wanted to pick out more presents for them. So we picked out a pretty little church for Grandpa, a blanket for Uncle Steve, a Santa's hat for Michael Michael, a necklace and earrings for Grandma Patti and a teddy bear for Papa. The gifts were super special because Alyssa picked them out with minimal help from me. She put a lot of thought into the gifts and was really proud of them.

We then headed back to Grandpa's house. I helped my mom in the kitchen getting the meal ready, while the kids enjoyed playing with Papa, Daddy and Michael. Papa spent most of the time snapping pictures and so I don't have a single picture from that day, but lots of good memories.

After a delicious meal, we sat down and opened a few presents. We then had some more yummy food with dessert.

After dessert was over, the kids, my brother and us packed up to head home to get ready for Santa.

It was a great day. The kids had a blast and were the best they have ever been at my Grandpa's house and I enjoyed spending time with my family.