Christmas...

Think I'll have to break things down into a few posts but that's ok!  We were able to go to Arizona for Christmas and we were all excited for our "big trip" as Preston called it.  We left on a Saturday and drove 10 hours to Las Vegas to stay with Dan and Aranne for the night.  That was the longest stretch we've ever driven so we were nervous how it would go.  We were lucky enough to have perfect driving weather and the roads were all clear (which we had been nervous about for weeks).  The kids did great and even though we were tired, it went well.  The drive from Vegas to my parents' the next day also went well and we were happy to be in the warmth and with family.

We had a day before Mike, Maile, and crew (Elli, Benji, and Kaia) arrived from Oregon on Christmas Eve. We enjoyed our traditional Christmas Eve dinner with a full table and after a quick Christmas story and a letter to Santa, the kids were exhausted and were off to bed.

Abby kept pushing the chairs up to the counters so she could reach all of the goodies... she's getting to be quite sneaky!

Being silly with Grandpa!

Working hard on his letter to Santa.

Jingle the Elf followed us all the way to Arizona! Preston was so surprised and excited that he was still able to find us.  When we told him on Christmas Eve that Jingle would be going back to the North Pole to stay and to say goodbye, he burst into tears because he didn't want Jingle to leave.  It was so sad!  To make him feel better we asked Santa in his letter if Jingle could stay for a few extra days... Santa said yes of course.  

Checking out my mom's famous nativity.  She has collected this antique nativity set it includes many, many pieces of each character... apparently it was a big party!

My kids were the first awake of course (they don't like to sleep in at Grandma and Grandpa's house, Abby especially had some VERY early mornings) so we had to try to entertain them for awhile while we waited for everyone else to wake up... a very difficult task for Preston who was a mess to have to wait to open presents.  We had fun helping the kids open their presents and watching everyone else open theirs.  Nate and Katie and their brand new baby girl Juliet joined us and we finished the morning off with our traditional Christmas breakfast, delicious of course.  We had a fun day relaxing and watching the kids play.  It was definitely a noisy house but that's certainly normal for the Urbancic house!!

Abby's favorite gift!

My little batman and Benji.

Juliet - 6 weeks, so fun to snuggle a tiny baby.  I held her as much I could  to soak up those newborn cuddles.  We're not quite ready for #3 yet, so it was fun to hold a tiny baby and then hand her back when she got upset.