Christmas in VA

We set out early Saturday morning after feeding Ian breakfast. Destination VA, to spend Christmas with Chris' family. The day went surprisingly smooth and we arrived in quick time-about 10 hours. Can't say there was no screaming or crying on occasion but I was really impressed with how well the boys traveled.

Thus started a family filled week of sleeping, eating, child caring, picture taking, gingerbread house making, talking, caroling (an amazing thing in the Williamson family spanning the whole month. They are so good they got requests this year to come to people's Christmas parties. I was a little disappointed when a sore throat kept me from participating in their bookings this year-they were singing some old goodies and a new one, Carol of the Bells this year.), hole patching (can you guess how many men it takes to patch a hole in the ceiling?), tool inheriting and playing.





Noah was a little overwhelmed with all the people but warmed up in good time. Ian was a little burr stuck to his daddy the whole time! If daddy was out of the room I was a decent substitute but only if daddy was out of sight and hearing range. Poor daddy, at least he has arms of steel:)

The boys shared a room pretty successfully which meant we got sleep some too. The cousins had a good time playing together, frequently disappearing into the basement for bits of time.



We acted out Luke 2 on Christmas Eve, according to family tradition. We had a stunning Madonna, adorable baby Jesus, and the most handsome innkeeper with yet another adorable baby boy:)



Sadly, that night we also started to drop like flies. Andrew and Dad W. succumbed first with a long night of worship to the porcelain throne. Dad W. didn't even make it back to the house the next morning (family members were farmed out to a couple of places since there are so many of us). Andrew spent Christmas morning behind closed doors so as not to further infect anyone else. And yep, that's hardwood. Poor guy.

While I enjoy getting gifts (who doesn't really?) I especially enjoyed Noah's excitement for the day and the thoughtfulness of others as they picked gifts that were especially meaningful to the receiver. For instance, I thought it was cool that Clark, an artist, got a calendar with his own work in it.

Noah enjoyed his wheel loader, but even more he enjoyed the opening of the presents. So much so, that he helped everyone else that he could with their opening. 'mo crismas pwesents?' was all we heard all morning!

Grandma Mar let him help open her new sewing machine with it's pale pink case (I didn't know you could get pink cases!)
And Michael and David made fun reindeer treats for everyone.

They even made some with glasses for those of us with a visual impairment:)

We left for home the day after Christmas. Any thought of extending our stay dashed by the sickness that was taking hold. Eventually, Stephanie, Clara and Grandpa also got sick. We thought we had been miraculously preserved but alas, it was not so. Chris and I came down with it Sunday night-two days after getting home. Ian woke Monday morning to his worst blowout diaper ever and Noah seems to have gotten something else.

So, there you have the long winded version of why it is already the new year and I am just getting around to blogging about Christmas!