Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I apologize for getting behind in my blog posts. Now I have over 60 photos to share. I'm going to keep my descriptions short, but hopefully the images will express how amazing our holiday visits with family were. Here's a photo Brielle took of our Christmas tree.
Ginny loves changes in the house, and she particularly loved having a Christmas tree with gifts under it. She was a little naughty with chewing on the tree branches, knocking off ornaments, and batting ribbons off of the wrapped gifts, but it was great to see her having a fun time.
We set up our Christmas decorations early. Prior to the official celebrations, though, Granddad and Sujata came for a visit. The weather was nice, so we were excited to finally show them our local beach. So far, we haven't ever seen it crowded. It feels like our personal escape. (Just ignore the car in the background and it's a nice picture.)
We also got to show Granddad and Sujata our beautiful pier. Brielle and I both love taking photos there.
We're still learning about St. Augustine and which times of year are busy. Apparently, between Thanksgiving and Christmas are crazy busy times here. I'm sure many people are traveling down south for warmer weather. But there are also many St. Augustine events that attract visitors, like the "Nights of Lights" downtown, where Christmas lights are strung all over Old Town. It was busy, but very beautiful.
At their school, the kids had their own celebrations. The kindergarten classes had an "around the world" holiday presentation, which Ronan greatly enjoyed. (Look to the far left.)
Brielle's class had a holiday party and gift exchange that was really fun. Her teacher read a story and whenever she said "right", they had to pass the gift they brought to the right, and whenever she said "left" as part of the story, they passed it left.
Back at home, we had a tradition of the "Elf on the Shelf" visiting. She appears in the days leading up to Christmas. And each night she magically moves to a different area of the house to watch over the kids and report back to Santa about whether they've been good or bad. The kids loved waking up each morning and finding the elf in a new location.
This was our year to be visited by family, which was great, since we could show them our new house. But we were fortunate to also figure out a way to fly out to visit Kraig's family at Aunt Amy's house in Indianapolis as well. The kids have gotten used to me taking "stock photos", so they posed for a "stock photo" depicting children bored at the airport while they wait for their flight. In actuality, things went smoothly for us, but it was fun to pretend we were inconvenienced for photos.
The kids were super-excited to arrive at Stella's house and enjoy the holidays with her. Grammy was there and brought Emmett, and we finally got to meet Stella's cat, Fiona (in the background).
We always love meeting new kitties, but meeting Fiona was very special because she was a Cornish Rex, a cat we've never seen before. She's very long, but smaller than a normal cat, and she had very little hair. When you pet her, she's actually soft, but she has a rather bald appearance, and very large ears. One thing that's special about this breed of cat is that they're very friendly and tolerant (of kids carrying them around). It was wonderful to meet her, and I understand why someone would want a cat like her.
Soon after we arrived, we were greeted by a beautiful white Christmas snow fall! It wasn't too much, but it was enough for the kids to go outside and throw snow balls.
Just like at home, the cousins enjoyed having "dance party" in the evening.
On Christmas Eve, Grammy read "The Night Before Christmas" for all the grandkids.
On Christmas morning, the grandkids woke up early (of course). But they waited patiently on the staircase as the parents and grandparents gathered downstairs to prepare for Christmas morning.
The kids arrived downstairs to find stockings from Santa filled with fun gifts.
Then it was time for the regular Christmas gift opening.
We had a great time in Indianapolis seeing Grammy, Uncle Todd, Aunt Amy, Aunt Kelly, Uncle Matt, and Cousins Stella, Emmy, Ben, and Dylan. We had a smooth flight back to Florida and immediately got to continue our Christmas celebrations with Uncle Kevin, Aunt Anoosh, and Cousins Sylvia and Tavi.
Our next gift opening was with Grandma Pat and Grandma Sue.
We had a wonderful belated Christmas dinner at the Columbia Restaurant in Old Town.
The next day we headed out to the Marineland beach area to see the unique coquina beach rocks along the shore.
We again played Apples to Apples, to Ronan's delight.
After the grandmas left, we took a trip down south to the Kennedy Space Center.
There was a moving memorial to the astronauts lost on the Challenger and Columbia voyages, with remains of the spacecrafts hovering in dark lighting.
Kevin's family treated us to a special bus tour that allowed us to see the Vehicle Assembly Building and several launch pads.
The next day we enjoyed yet another Christmas gift-opening celebration with Granddad andSujata.
Although it was cold (for Florida) we got to show Kevin's family our beautiful pier.
We also visited Granddad and Sujata in Gainesville for a wonderful brunch at 706 and more fun hanging out together.
We loved Granddad's small Christmas tree, with very personal ornaments of current and previous (Satchell and Paige) loved ones honored on the home-made ornaments.
On New Year's Eve, we all toasted the coming year. The kids had non-alcoholic apple bubbly. There are no photos of this, but we all went down to our local beach to watch the St. Augustine Pier fireworks that were happening just up the beach from us. For some reason, they started more than an hour later than scheduled, and we were all so cold in the wind that we needed to leave before then. But even though we didn't get to see the fireworks, everyone felt so fortunate to be together and we were all excited to ring in a new year together. Happy 2018 everyone!
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