Shakespear Shuffle

Second Christmas

   

  

For our second Christmas we flew to Texas!!!  We were a little apprehensive about flying so far with so many kids but they did awesome.  No one cried or whined or threw up on the plane.  I think part of it was the novelty of flying & that they fed us snacks & gave us juice & the kids all got their own wings to clip to their jackets.  We didn't have to check any baggage we just brought a bunch of backpacks & everyone helped carry stuff.  It was pretty great.

Getting up at 3:45am makes for some tired kids by afternoon - ha!  This was totally staged they didn't even act tired until later that night.

Dallen really liked the doggie door.  Nana & Poppie have moved since the last time we saw them so this was our first time in their new house.

My favorite thing about being there was cousin time.  Jennie & Joel's kids & ours all get along so well & have so much fun together even when it's been a while seeing each other.

We took a boat ride around & saw lots of pretty Christmas lights when the sun went down

There were some homes in the neighborhood that were totally decked out with lights & decorations

Jennie had a birthday while we were there!  Nana & Poppie watched all 11 grand kids while just us siblings & inlawed folks could go out for dessert.  That was fun.

 

 

  

Sugar cookie decorating

We had a girls only tea.  This was my very first time EVER having a tea party (minus the tea part) & it was a blast.  We had fun, cute & yummy food & lots of fun activities & crafts.  The boys went to a jump house & to the park for pizza so they had a blast too.  Dallen was sick & asleep on Jeremy's lap upstairs so they missed out on all the boy fun.

 

There were 3 card games that the kids loved to play over & over & over again.  I've never seen those games before but we will have to find them.

Hunter was feeling really sad that he was the only boy on this walk!

Gingerbread house creativity!

 

On Christmas Eve we went to a nice park with a playground & walking trails to have a hotdog roast.

 

shepherds...

innkeeper..

   

 

wiseman & angel...

the cutest nativity ever :)

  

Christmas morning present opening

Christmas afternoon Nana had all sorts of fun games for the kids to play to keep them all occupied.  One of the best was a marshmallow toss.

  

Big beautiful Texan sky

There is a park with a pond full of nutria which are a cross between a beaver & a rat.  They are pretty big so I like to think of them more like beavers!

We went to some gardens that were pretty close by - even in the winter there were plenty of beautiful flowers blooming.

 

More park fun

Jeremy & I were able to go on a two dates - to the Houston temple in the morning & to the Cheesecake Factory that night for dinner.  The temple is about 5 minutes from their house & is just gorgeous & the restaurant was delicious.  I've wanted to go there for the past 20 years but never have!

  

Pizza & cousin time -the best.  We love Double Daves!

 

Jennie was nice enough to let us come over a few times to play at their house.  They just live a few minutes from Nana.

     

We all got sick while we were away but nothing too terrible.  Dallen fell asleep in odd places & times.

Here we were on the way home!  We left late in the evening & our first flight was an hour late leaving so we thought we would miss our connecting flight but we ran through the airport & they waited for us so we were finally able to get to Portland & then drive home by 1:30AM!  It felt so great to sleep in my own bed that night.

 

I think Dallen was happy to be home too!

What a fun trip - I hope we can go more often.