Holidays

Where do I even begin? We had such a good time visiting our families this year. We had 9 days of uninterrupted fun with all of our parents, siblings, and even some of our cousins and Grandparents. Christmas Eve was spent with Grandma and Grandpa Smith and all of Rebecca's siblings/nieces/nephews. We had our annual Christmas Eve program, although this year most of the adult children didn't participate like they did last year (way to go, girls!). Then the kids all got their Christmas Eve jammies, put them on and we sang carols before putting the kiddos to bed.Christmas morning we all came upstairs and the first thing Jacob headed for was his cousins' bikes! He yelled out (does he ever speak quietly? No.) "Ooooh, bicycles!" Unfortunately, that's not what he got for Christmas, but we were quickly able to get him interested in the tool box Santa had left for him instead. He also got a trainset that he was quite taken with and G&G Smith gave him a Thomas the Train flashlight that's also a little push toy. He was in boy heaven! Meanwhile, the two girl cousins on the Smith side his age got dolls with strollers that they enjoyed pushing around, and even Jacob would steal turns pushing the strollers around the house.For Brad, he received some new headphones (which I think Jacob would love to steal from him) and a nice new wool dress coat. When he starts his new job in July (after residency is over) I think he's going to look the part of the doctor he's attempting to play!That afternoon we headed over to G&G Jones' house for Christmas dinner and some mean Wii game playing. I made a sweet prototype of Brad, complete with a hat to cover his balding head and a goatee to make up for the lack of hair on his head...too bad I don't have a picture of it to show you though! That evening we met the rest of the Cox clan at one of our churches for a little bit of extended family time. There were so many people there and I think Brad enjoyed seeing cousins he hadn't seen in a long time. Jacob took immediately to playing ping pong and chasing Weston around with Thomas and James (the trains). We ended that night with a trimester photo op. One of my sisters-in-law is in her third trimester (the baby's due next week), and another of my SILs is at the end of her first trimester, and me, well, I'm right in the middle. So, we took the opportunity to show off our baby bumps (or humps or lack there of)!The rest of our holiday was spent playing with cousins, siblings, napping, playing cards, and having a great time. It sure makes us excited for the prospect of living so close to all of our loved ones in a few short months. We hope you all had a great holiday and are looking forward to the prospect of a new year and all of the surprises it may contain!