Part 2 of our belated Christmas adventure began New Year's Eve day as we left my parents' to head further west to Josh's family in Kentucky, really only 20-25 minutes away. We arrived in the later evening to many cheers, hugs, and kisses for Caleb (and Josh and myself too, but mostly Caleb). Who could blame them? They hadn't seen him since he was 3.5 weeks old!
This crew wasted no time- ready to exchange gifts as soon as we sat down! We enjoyed giving gifts from Caleb to his aunts and uncles and his Oma and Opa (German names for Grandmother and Grandfather- original, easy to say, I like it!), and then also gifts from us to them. We got the kiddos the game Quelf (which turned into our evening entertainment well past midnight!), Oma and Opa an ornament, digital photography backgrounds, and a Harley Davidson shirt, and then Alli some Chunky Junk jewelry and Josh a gift card for food for the road. I think it was a hit!
We were very blessed in return to receive for Caleb diapers, the Super Baby Food book, clothes, toys (including a talking/singing puppy dog from Grandma Elsie that he loves!), and a picture frame for his room. Part of my gift from Josh's family was my external flash for my camera (yippee! These pictures wouldn't look near as good without it!), and I also received a huge photo collage frame (that didn't fit in our car- boo!!) among other thoughtful and sweet things! Josh got a new Underarmour shirt and a super warm and fuzzy panda blanket from Grandma Elsie (random, but you'd cuddle under it if you could feel it!). The kids also got us a really pretty glass Jesus figurine. The highlight of the evening was definitely playing Quelf into the New Year! And it's probably in everyone's best interests that no pictures were taken during this time, haha! Unfortunately with the new environment Caleb didn't sleep as well, BUT my sweet husband let me sleep in until 10 or so the next day. Very thankful for that treat!
New Year's Day was a wonderfully lazy day! It also brought new visitors- Charles, Katie, Keeley, and Cailyn! Thankful for inviting in-laws who don't mind friends coming to visit us while we stay with them! It was so fun to hold little Cailyn- she was right at a month old and weighs 7 lbs 8oz- less than Caleb did when he was born! She's so tiny and beautiful! It was fun getting to meet each other's kiddos!
Tonya and Tony prepared an amazing dinner of barbeque weenies (leaving some plain for me), chicken, stuffing, and more. We stayed up late (ok late to me is like 11, ha!) talking and laughing and playing games with the kiddos (xbox 360 kinect- sweet!) and Tonya and Tony. We kept hearing about snow for the next day but didn't pay too much attention to it.
Mistake! Monday morning we had quite the surprise to see this falling quickly from the sky!
So I of course needed to get pictures of Caleb with his first snow!
Needless to say, we weren't prepared for this kind of weather! We spent Monday hanging out with Tonya and Tony as the kids headed back to school, and got some great pictures! Here are some of my favorites:
I know I'm biased, but our kiddo just has the biggest, happiest smiles I've ever seen on a baby!
When the kiddos got home we packed up and headed to watch Lindsey's basketball practice before heading back to my parents' for dinner and then heading home. Well, it just kept snowing! We said our goodbyes to Josh's fam (sad face) and headed to my parents. News that the turnpike in WV wasn't looking so great the later it got led us to decide it was probably best we crash another night in town and drive home during daylight. It was a sweet Monday evening as my parents got final cuddles in with Caleb...
Since all of our stuff was packed away in the car (with not much room for anything else!), my mom lent me some PJs and had a mini-party in their bed watching Everybody Loves Raymond before we all headed to bed. Tuesday morning we pretty much let Caleb's schedule decide when we would leave, and we pulled out around 9am. Most of the interstate was clear, til we hit the turnpike! The further into the mountains we went, the worse it got!
Thankfully once we got into VA and closer to NC the roads cleared up majorly and we had little trouble getting home. It took us a bit longer with Caleb needing to feed and not being happy while awake in his carseat, but we made it home safe and sound. Josh called off of work so we concluded our trip by unpacking and settling back into our home.
We made great memories with our families, celebrating our first Christmas with them and Caleb. I can't say enough how beyond thankful we are for our families!
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