Christmas 2012 - Part II

After we celebrated Christmas at home, we left home to spend a few days with our extended families! The first stop was Iowa Falls for the Connell/Harper Christmas. Grandma Judy & Buppa had made tons of Christmas treats and we spent the evening happily mowing down on ham and homemade cookies. It was a lot of fun to watch all of the cousins open presents - and each of them had a decent stack of gifts to open! Harper received many wonderful presents. Brody was impressed by some of her gifts and had to try them out....sometimes he'd even sit on her lap because he was so excited to see the toy up close! 

The next day we headed up to Humboldt to celebrate with Ross's family. We spent Christmas Eve at Grandpa Kirk & Grandma Linda's house. Most of the day was spent lounging, talking and watching Harper play. That evening we went to church before coming home to a feast prepared by Linda. She has a knack of being able to serve Christmas dinner within minutes of walking in the door - that in itself is practically a Christmas miracle! After dinner, we opened presents. Linda likes to do a scavenger hunt that keeps us on our toes - literally, we are on our feet and all over the house and frequently on our tip toys to reach our next present and clue! She does a great job of keeping things exciting. 

We spent Christmas Day in our PJs at Grandma Ruths & Grandpa Denny's house. Any day that you have champagne before noon and wear comfy clothes is awesome in my opinion! We opened presents in the morning. Harper was finally starting to get the hang of ripping the paper off her presents by this time. But, her favorite thing to do was still sit ON  the packages. Boxes are a lot like little chairs to her, I guess. After all the presents were unwrapped (Ruthanne outdid herself again this year!), we relaxed until Ruthanne served us a Christmas feast - prime rib and lobster tails. We all ate until we nearly burst and then settled down to watch movies.

We are so blessed to have wonderful families. We wish we could spend more time with everyone, but the week goes so fast. We do enjoy every minute we spend with our loved ones - and that's what is really important!