Christmas 2012

We had a wonderful Christmas week celebrating together in Bloomington and then heading south to Indiana to celebrate with lots of family.

Addy and Carter posing before Addy's preschool Christmas program

Carter eating his "train snack" on our family Polar Express night

Before Jingle headed back to the North Pole for the last time, we sent a note with him to deliver to Santa asking him to visit us early on Christmas Eve morning since we were heading to Indiana on Christmas morning.  Thank goodness Santa agreed to make us one of his first stops!  The kids were elated to wake up to a living room of wrapped gifts on Christmas Eve morning.  Christmas just seems to get better and better every year as the kids get more and more excited.  After opening gifts from Santa and exchanging gifts with each other, we spent the morning and afternoon playing with toys before Church.  We headed to church in the early afternoon. Addy was very excited because on Christmas everyone attends the service because there isn't Kidsview (children's church).  Thank goodness our pastor makes the service super kid friendly with an abbreviated sermon and the praise band plays a ton of Christmas carols that the kids all sing along to.  Addy and Carter both belted out Rudolph with a ton of Christmas Spirit.

Derek showing off his #1 Dad medal that Addy purchased for him at her school's Christmas gift store.

Addy was so excited about her Friends Legos sets

Carter loved his flying Buzz!

Excited about Spiderman!

After church, it was back home to more playing and a dinner of finger foods.   As Derek and I were sitting on the floor putting toys together and playing games with Addy and Carter, we both agreed that this will be the calmest Christmas we will have for many years to come:)  It was a perfect way to celebrate Christmas with our family.

Ready for church!

We headed to my parent's house in Indiana on Christmas morning.  The kids occupied themselves on the drive playing with their news toys and there weren't many people on the roads, so we made great time.  We arrived around noon and had dinner with my parents and then waited for everyone to arrive for Christmas dinner and the gift exchange later that evening.  The kids had a great time hanging out with their Grandparents, Aunt, Uncle, and their significant others.  They were definitely worn out by the end of the evening! 

A snowstorm rolled through Southern Indiana the next day which kept Derek's brother and his family from coming down from Terre Haute to celebrate Christmas on Wednesday. We had planned on celebrating with them on Wednesday and then Derek and I were going to head to Louisville for a a few nights.  Since the weather wasn't as bad to the east, Derek and I decided to leave my parent's house earlier that afternoon.  Addy and Carter were very excited to be spending some time on their own with Grandma and Grandpa Schum and were basically pushing us out the door as we left. 

Siblings

Family picture...all 6 of us!!

Grandma and Grandpa

Derek and I had been discussing a getaway at Christmas for a while.  We had debated going to Las Vegas for a few days, but I was always a bit hesitant to book it.  It turns out that being "gun-shy" paid off for me for once, as my doctor wouldn't have approved me going because of the twins!  We had a great time on our trip.  We went to the movies, did lots of shopping (mostly for baby items:), and ate two nice dinners.  We stayed at the Dupont Mansion Bed and Breakfast, which is in the "Old Louisville" section of town and is a beautiful home.  The innkeeper was suer friendly and made awesome breakfast for us on both mornings.  It was a great mini-getaway and we are so glad we took got the opportunity to go since we probably won't get another chance until we're at least 40:)

Addy loved playing in the snao at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Carter was running a slight fever, so he stayed inside.

On Friday we headed home and joined my Mom's side of the family for Christmas at my Uncle Pat's house.  It's always so much fun seeing and catching up with everyone.  I feel like I talk a mile a minute for several hours when we get a chance to see extended family, because there is so much catching up to do.  I am so glad we got a chance to everyone that could make it.

On Saturday we packed up to head to Derek's mom's house in Evansville to visit with her before heading back to Illinois on Sunday.  My Uuncle Ed and Aunt Betty and all of their kids and grandchildren stopped my parents before we headed out.  It was so much fun seeing them and we did a lot of catching up in a short amount of time.  All of the kids played very well despite not having seen each other for a very long time.  It was a great was to end our Christmas trip to Ferdinand! 

Later that day we had Christmas dinner with Grandma Freihaut and made a trip to Orange Leaf for yogurt and headed to Target to check out their baby section.  While shopping we happened to find a crib on clearance that was similiar to our current crib, so we purchased it, took Grandma and the kids back to the house and went back with the seats down in the Acadia to pick it up.

I don't know how he did it, but Derek managed to get all of our luggage, gifts, kids, and the big crib box in the Acadia for the drive home.  The kids didn't have a whole lot of head clearance, but we all made it home safe and sound.  We had a wonderful Christmas full of lots of family time, play and great memories!