Early Christmas

Although it was only an hour and a half drive up to my sister Claudine's house, this is what the girls looked like on the way there! We left at 9:30 AM. Bunch of slacker, my girls are! As we pulled into the driveway we found that Suzanne & Greg were right behind us, having left Philadelphia a bit earlier - like us. We had a nice day, but Josie never left the Christmas tree, waiting patiently until it was time to open presents.

Once everyone had arrived we had a nice light lunch and let the kids open their gifts. In my family, we open gifts from the youngest to the oldest. That way, everyone gets to see what everyone else got. Jack (our nephew) was totally bummed out to remember that he wasn't the youngest anymore - Josie got to go first.

Here's the progression of happy faces from Saturday afternoon:

Jack - who received all things 'Baltimore Ravens'


Kate - who love clothes and snow globes


Liam - who shows off his Manchester United jersey from Aunt Claudine


Maddie showing off the hat & gloves she received from Aunt Claudine. (Aunt Claudine gives the coolest gifts!)


Zack (being supervised by Liam) opens one of many 'gift cards' (the favorite of teens everywhere!)


James opens his 'Philadelphia Phillies World Champions' T-shirt from BIL Greg. (It's a long story, but it started when Liam was about 3 and Zack was 8 and we sent them home from the beach in LA Dodgers hats and T-shirts!) The rivalry continues...


Josie gives her Grandmom a hand opening a present


Suzanne gives Mom a hand in reading a note from our Dad (His gift to her was a trip to Atlantic City with $$ spending money!)



Pop opens a gift while wearing his new Phillies hat


We all had a lovely time and received extremely generous gifts. We headed home around 8 PM and we were just about 3 blocks down the road before Josie crashed. She had so much excitement being around her cousins - combined with a lack of a nap - that our little angel just toughed it out as long as she could! Maddie fell asleep too. Upon our arrival home, she fed the dogs and went up to bed. She slept until 2 the next afternoon! (She finished mid term exams on Friday, so she's been keeping some late hours!)

More to follow...