Christmas with the Fam - Part 2

We headed to Odessa to spend Christmas with Randy's mom and step-dad this year. Kristi, Andrew and Bella arrived at our apartment on Friday night (before Christmas) and we headed out bright and early (well it was still dark) on Saturday. They drive an Expedition so we all loaded up and headed out for a roadtrip to west Texas. We left super early thinking Bella would sleep most of the drive there. Nope. I think all of us (minus Andrew driving) slept maybe an hour on the trip out west. Here is Bella with her bunny from Aunt Rachel & Uncle Randy.

For someone who is 13 months old and got up super early, Bella was a perfect little traveler. Of course, it was fun to get to entertain her too. She loves her Aunt Rachel. :)

Sunday morning we went to church at Immanuel (where Randy grew up). It was so good to see friends who we hadn't seen in a while. Corey, Crystal, Robin & Larry, the Haynes', Monique, and I'm sure there were more. So if we saw you at church and I didn't list you, I'm sorry!

Sunday afternoon we were all a bit lazy. Bella was up most of the night, sick with a cold, so Kristi and Andrew were pretty tired. By Monday morning, Sonia was pretty sick too. She went to work anyways. Randy and I had lunch with Crystal and Corey. It was soo good to catch up and visit. That afternoon, we decided to take pictures for Sonia for Christmas. The last picture she had of all 4 (me, Randy, Kristi, Andrew) was from our wedding and Bella wasn't even born yet! So we dressed up and posed in front of her beautiful Christmas tree for some pictures we hoped she would love. Here is a sampling:

Tuesday we hung out and ran errands. Wednesday (Christmas Eve) was spent cooking, baking, and getting ready for Christmas Eve night. Bruce's daughter, Jennifer, and her family came over for dinner and to open presents. I forgot how quickly opening presents goes for little kids! Literally 5 minutes after all the gifts were handed out, they were open! There were some pretty happy boys playing with their new toys though.

Christmas morning we woke up and gathered in the living room for gifts and the Christmas story. Sonia found this neat story and made up a Christmas box for Bella that she can use year after year. In the box are things that represent the meaning of Christmas. The story is about Santa coming to visit and him telling the true meaning of Christmas by the things he pulls out of his bag. He has a tree, a star, an angel, a wreath, a candy cane, a bell, and some other things I can't remember. Each item represents something about Jesus.

After the story, we exchanged gifts. I got pj's and a cool scrapbooking bag from Kristi, Kristi got scrapbooking stuff from her mom, Sonia got scrapbooking stuff, socks, and pj's from me, Randy got an Academy gift card from Bryan, Bryan got an American Eagle gift card from Randy, Andrew got a tool belt from Bruce, and Bruce got house shoes and Cowboys pants from Andrew. It was funny because all the girls got something scrapbook related! The boys were just sure we had snuck some into their gifts as well. :) Then came the stockings! More goodies!

Finally Sonia got to open her special gift - the pictures! She loved them! I'm so glad we did them. They turned out really well.

We ate breakfast and attempted to take Bella to the park. Attempted because when we got their, all their baby swings were gone. Weird. Plus Bella wasn't feeling great so all she liked was the slide. I did get some cute pictures though.

We did an early dinner then got together and played Taboo - girls versus boys. Boys won. We were really close though. :) We wrapped up the night with Horton Hears a Who! It is a cute movie and really funny. Friday morning (early again) we loaded up and headed out on the road toward home. Ronnie and Lupita (Randy's dad and step-mom) met us on the road and drove in with us. They ended up spending the weekend with us and going to church with us on Sunday.

That was a jammed packed week! It was good to spend time with family though. Makes us wish we all were a little closer. So that's all for the marathon post. I started this one a couple days before New Year and am just now getting to finish posting it. Be looking for my 100th post coming soon!