I realized that I had not mentioned much about the 2nd half of our Kansas visit, our return home, or our holiday here in Georgia . . . so I thought I’d catch you up today. After all, isn’t everyone trying to do a little catching up today, this day-after-Christmas?
Picking up from where the Kansas Blog left off, we did make the trek up to snow-snow-snowy Iowa last Friday (which was 12/21). The trip was uneventful – about 4 hours of Backyardigans episodes and a few minutes of snoozing sums up the ride. We were excited to welcome Jim’s cousin, her husband and new baby (and his aunt and uncle too) later on that evening. We had not met baby Madigan – now 3 months old – so we were excited to check out our newest cousin. Meg LOVED her, brought her toy after toy to play with, and kept wanting to hold her and feed her bottles. The interaction was truly adorable.
With the Moens (Jim’s mom’s family) all piled into one house -- 11 adults, 2 babies, and 1 dog -- we celebrated our Christmas together on Saturday. The highlight was that his cousin Audra got a Wii from her husband – which was a total shock to her and so fun to watch. The girls (Meg and Madigan) got tons of toys and 3 or 4 matching outfits . . . apparently, Jim and Audra used to get matching clothes, so this is a bit of a tradition. It was a great Christmas with that side of the family . . . last year we were not able to celebrate together, so we were very excited to see everyone this year.
Sunday was one of my favorite parts of our holiday adventure each year: The Dahlby Family
Christmas. You think the house was full over at the Moens, multiply that by at least 2 and you’ve got Dahlby Family Christmas. This year was a “small” gathering – only 24 adults and 8 of the 11 great-grandchildren. It’s so much hustle and bustle the entire time you are there, I love it to pieces. Everyone is in a great mood, eating, drinking, laughing . . . playing with kids and participating in a “White Elephant” gift exchange . . . it’s quite a day. And this year, we were able to share our exciting news of New Baby, so it was all the sweeter. Leaving that gathering is sad . . . but there will be another next 
year, and if we have any way of making it, we will certainly go.
Returning home on Christmas Eve was not quite as easy as we thought it might be . . . that wintering Iowa weather threw us for a curve. Instead of leaving the evening before our flight and staying in a hotel in Minneapolis (where our flight was and a whopping 2 hours from where we were in Iowa), we left EARLY on the morning of 12/24 because the weather was going to be at it’s best then. I mean EARLY, friends. Dark for the entire ride early. 4AM early. We journeyed to the airport with no problems – so I guess the early morning was worth it (rather than a dangerous drive the night before). Meg was exhausted after the car ride and airport fanfare, so she CRASHED on the plane and slept nearly all the way home . . . including the one hour delay in Minneapolis. The lady behind us commented that we had such a well-behaved daughter . . . I just thanked her and thought that SHE was a lucky lady to have caught Meg on such a sleepy day!
Now that we were back in Georgia, the holiday was not over yet . . .
My parents arrived at our home in Marietta about 2 hours after we brought our bags in the door. They were SO excited to see Meg and share Christmas with us. Together, we threw together a really nice dinner, sat down, and enjoyed catching up on what we’d missed in the last week. After dinner, Meg opened a few pre-Christmas presents, then off to bed with the sleepyhead and on to Santa duties.
It was our first Christmas playing Santa, and BOY it was fun! We only had a few things to put
together, so the 4 of us stayed up and chatted while we went to work. Meg got doll furniture and a piano from us and a mini-kitchen from my parents, and both tasks took us the better part of 90 minutes to complete. It was so fun, though . . . and it keeps me looking forward to many late-Christmas-Even-nights to come.
And NOW . . . the moment you’ve all been waiting for . . . Christmas Morning. (If you’ve read this far, then I thank you. You really ARE interested in our lives!)
Meg – the star of the show, as usual – slept in a bit, but was wide awake and ready for fun by 8:15am on Christmas morning. Daddy brought her downstairs . . . we all eagerly aniticpated her reaction . . . Mommy had camera in hand . . . but Meg was distracted when she saw Grandma and Grandaddy standing in the kitchen and she ran right to THEM! It was cute. They quickly turned her around and showed her what Santa had left . . .
I think she was confused as to why a toy store was opening in her living room!
We took the next 2 hours and playfully opened package after package, Meg enjoying the contents of each and every one. She not only opened hers, but she helped everyone enjoy their packages, too. Meg received so many wonderful toys, games, books, etc . . . she is one lucky little angel. It was so awesome to watch her face light up with each gift. Of course, she has not idea about the whole Santa thing . . . but just watching her enjoy her morning with us all was a true treat.
Christmas morning was capped off with a delicious breakfast made by Jim, then Meg promptly went back to her crib and took a long snooze, with visions of Sugarplums dancing in her head, I’m certain.
All in all, it was a great, great holiday. From Georgia to Kansas to Iowa and back, everything was perfect.
HOW are we going to top this next year?
Happy Holidays to you all!! Hope you enjoyed your day as much as we did.
Picking up from where the Kansas Blog left off, we did make the trek up to snow-snow-snowy Iowa last Friday (which was 12/21). The trip was uneventful – about 4 hours of Backyardigans episodes and a few minutes of snoozing sums up the ride. We were excited to welcome Jim’s cousin, her husband and new baby (and his aunt and uncle too) later on that evening. We had not met baby Madigan – now 3 months old – so we were excited to check out our newest cousin. Meg LOVED her, brought her toy after toy to play with, and kept wanting to hold her and feed her bottles. The interaction was truly adorable.
With the Moens (Jim’s mom’s family) all piled into one house -- 11 adults, 2 babies, and 1 dog -- we celebrated our Christmas together on Saturday. The highlight was that his cousin Audra got a Wii from her husband – which was a total shock to her and so fun to watch. The girls (Meg and Madigan) got tons of toys and 3 or 4 matching outfits . . . apparently, Jim and Audra used to get matching clothes, so this is a bit of a tradition. It was a great Christmas with that side of the family . . . last year we were not able to celebrate together, so we were very excited to see everyone this year.
Sunday was one of my favorite parts of our holiday adventure each year: The Dahlby Family
Christmas. You think the house was full over at the Moens, multiply that by at least 2 and you’ve got Dahlby Family Christmas. This year was a “small” gathering – only 24 adults and 8 of the 11 great-grandchildren. It’s so much hustle and bustle the entire time you are there, I love it to pieces. Everyone is in a great mood, eating, drinking, laughing . . . playing with kids and participating in a “White Elephant” gift exchange . . . it’s quite a day. And this year, we were able to share our exciting news of New Baby, so it was all the sweeter. Leaving that gathering is sad . . . but there will be another next 
year, and if we have any way of making it, we will certainly go.Returning home on Christmas Eve was not quite as easy as we thought it might be . . . that wintering Iowa weather threw us for a curve. Instead of leaving the evening before our flight and staying in a hotel in Minneapolis (where our flight was and a whopping 2 hours from where we were in Iowa), we left EARLY on the morning of 12/24 because the weather was going to be at it’s best then. I mean EARLY, friends. Dark for the entire ride early. 4AM early. We journeyed to the airport with no problems – so I guess the early morning was worth it (rather than a dangerous drive the night before). Meg was exhausted after the car ride and airport fanfare, so she CRASHED on the plane and slept nearly all the way home . . . including the one hour delay in Minneapolis. The lady behind us commented that we had such a well-behaved daughter . . . I just thanked her and thought that SHE was a lucky lady to have caught Meg on such a sleepy day!
Now that we were back in Georgia, the holiday was not over yet . . .
My parents arrived at our home in Marietta about 2 hours after we brought our bags in the door. They were SO excited to see Meg and share Christmas with us. Together, we threw together a really nice dinner, sat down, and enjoyed catching up on what we’d missed in the last week. After dinner, Meg opened a few pre-Christmas presents, then off to bed with the sleepyhead and on to Santa duties.
It was our first Christmas playing Santa, and BOY it was fun! We only had a few things to put
together, so the 4 of us stayed up and chatted while we went to work. Meg got doll furniture and a piano from us and a mini-kitchen from my parents, and both tasks took us the better part of 90 minutes to complete. It was so fun, though . . . and it keeps me looking forward to many late-Christmas-Even-nights to come.And NOW . . . the moment you’ve all been waiting for . . . Christmas Morning. (If you’ve read this far, then I thank you. You really ARE interested in our lives!)
Meg – the star of the show, as usual – slept in a bit, but was wide awake and ready for fun by 8:15am on Christmas morning. Daddy brought her downstairs . . . we all eagerly aniticpated her reaction . . . Mommy had camera in hand . . . but Meg was distracted when she saw Grandma and Grandaddy standing in the kitchen and she ran right to THEM! It was cute. They quickly turned her around and showed her what Santa had left . . .
I think she was confused as to why a toy store was opening in her living room!
We took the next 2 hours and playfully opened package after package, Meg enjoying the contents of each and every one. She not only opened hers, but she helped everyone enjoy their packages, too. Meg received so many wonderful toys, games, books, etc . . . she is one lucky little angel. It was so awesome to watch her face light up with each gift. Of course, she has not idea about the whole Santa thing . . . but just watching her enjoy her morning with us all was a true treat.
Christmas morning was capped off with a delicious breakfast made by Jim, then Meg promptly went back to her crib and took a long snooze, with visions of Sugarplums dancing in her head, I’m certain.
All in all, it was a great, great holiday. From Georgia to Kansas to Iowa and back, everything was perfect.
HOW are we going to top this next year?
Happy Holidays to you all!! Hope you enjoyed your day as much as we did.
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1 comment:
I LOVE your storyboard of Meg in her red coat. Merry Christmas Dahlby family!
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