Christmas, Christmas Everywhere

We had so many holiday activities and celebrations even before Christmas officially started. We’re now on the other side of Christmas (almost into the New Year) and things don’t seem to be slowing down. We started the holiday season by attending Chris’s RC club Christmas party earlier in the month. There was a lot of talk of RC planes and tools. Not surprising! One member/friend even brought a small quadcopter and flew it around the room. Another friend received the official gavel for being the 2015 president. Wonder how often it gets used?! 🙂

Our local Busch Gardens turns into Christmas Town this time of year. It was our first time, and we really enjoyed seeing the lights and shows. We were really impressed by the amazing singing in Gloria!

We visited with part of Chris’s family the Saturday before Christmas. As always, the food was amazing. Jessica’s sugar cookies were very popular. She was even asked for the recipe!

Sugar Cookies! Baking win!

Every year, we have a secret Santa exchange that isn’t very secret. There were a lot of laughs this year. Grandma and Grandpa always receive a photo calendar of pictures from the year. They always act surprised though. Haha! It’s nice to see all the pictures and everyone takes a lot of time looking through it. Grandma’s Yule Log is always a big hit! She only ever makes it for Christmas, so it’s a big deal. They also usually hide $10 at each place setting. They get pretty creative, and there is no shortage of teasing and pranks.

We spent Christmas Eve with Jessica’s parents in PJs! Jessica received an early Christmas gift – Batman PJs with a cape to accessorize, of course.

Santa made a pit stop before making the rest of his deliveries. He visits almost every year. We’re glad we can avoid those long lines at the mall!

Ellie snuggling with Santa.

Jessica’s parents made her one of her favorite dishes, stuffed shells. We ate a lot of sweet treats, including coffee cake, Rudolph noses, peanut brittle, and poppy-seed cougan. If you don’t know what poppy-seed cougan is, you’re not alone. We haven’t met anyone outside of Jessica’s family that knows exactly what we’re talking about. It’s a favorite, family recipe. It’s sweetness wrapped inside of a sweet bread. It’s the best description we could come up with. 🙂

For Christmas, we opened presents first thing in the morning between the two of us (and the fur kids too) before heading off to Chris’s parents for breakfast. We took Ellie and Oreo with us so they could play with Chris’s parent’s dogs, Winston and Shelby. Ellie was very clingy, but as soon as she got some sausage from Chris’s Dad, she was much more interested in being friends.

Winston saying, “Hello!”

Chris’s brother, Eric, was able to join Chris’s parents and us for dinner. Morgan wasn’t feeling very well and sadly missed the festivities. We need to catch up with more family in the New Year.

Eric showing Nitto (the cat) that Penny (the dog) is a friend. Don’t think Nitto agrees.

We promise we’ll relax on the food photos in the future. 🙂 We hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season and that the New Year is a happy and healthy one! No big plans tonight, but our New Year we’ll be filled with many new adventures that we’ll be keeping us plenty busy. We can’t wait to share our next step with you!

What was your favorite part of the holiday season?