Not your typical Christmas Day

Christmas tree at Calvary Chapel.  Our neighbors always invite us to go to a special Christmas Eve Service.
Christmas 2016 was unique in 2 ways:  1, it was on a Sunday, and 2, the kids didn't open presents until after 3:30 PM.  The day started off with the kids getting excited about the fact that their sugar loaded breakfast was in their stockings.  They got juice in character shaped bottles; Isaac got Darth Vader and Esther got Miss Piggy.  Then they got individual serving of lucky charms.  Unsurprisingly, they ate the marshmallows and left the rest.  They also got the standard canister of Pringles and gummy bears.  
After that, we had to rush to get ready for church. No time for presents.  After church, we came home and had just enough time to make and eat a delicious brunch, which included our favorite raspberry cream cheese muffins.  Then we got in the car to go to the hospital to sing Christmas carols to the sick.  Again, no time for presents.  We finally made it home just after 3:00 PM.  Finally time to open presents.  I was very impressed that neither of our children threw giant fits over the fact that it took so long to open presents.   

The group that met to sing to the hospital patients.  Our family is pictured furthest to the right.  Stefani is holding Esther and Isaac is on Reid's shoulders.

Two days after Christmas the cousins showed up at our house!  (Don't worry, it was totally planned.)  We decided to visit the gulf coast side of Florida and went to Tampa and stayed at a little beach house for New Year's Day.  We got to see the sunset on the beach, find conch shells, and set off fire works at the beach on new year's eve.  It was pretty fun, barring the 2 hiccups we had--Isaac losing his stuffed kitty and Esther breaking the blinds in the beach rental which we then had to replace.  


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