We celebrated Christmas with our Winterhoff family this past weekend, in what L&L refer to as "Cousins' Christmas". This year, there were a couple of new "cousins" to add to the
joyous chaos, as Scout (the Richmond Winterhoff's 8 week-old mini Labradoodle puppy) and Hailey (the Charlottesville Winterhoff's new yellow Lab) joined the family.
The human children (that sounds funny, but it is how we clarified which "kids" we were talking about all weekend) loved the furry children, and the dogs were a big part of the Christmas celebration (and received LOTS of attention from their adoring cousins). This created a tally of 3 dogs, 6 children, 8 adults, and a partridge in a pear tree in one house for our weekend festivities, and we think that Bean and Poppy deserve a medal for being such accommodating, gracious, and flexible hosts.
One of my favorite parts of Cousins' Christmas is the children giving gifts to each other. They carefully select presents for their cousins, wrap them, and are excited to watch everyone open their presents. This makes our hearts happy as parents and is fun for everyone:
There are gifts from aunts and uncles, piles of presents from Bean and Poppy, and traditions (such as "back to back" presents) that have been carried over from the time that these little boys' Daddies were young:
I will remember this Cousins' Christmas as the year that Leah squealed with delight when she opened the two girl superhero figures that she received. While other 4 year-old girls may have Disney Princesses on their Christmas wish lists, our little Peanut asked for Batgirl and Supergirl... "so I can have my OWN special super heroes when I play with Bubbie...":
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| Sure enough, as soon as all the presents were opened, Leah joined the boys as they played with their action figures. |
This was the Cousins' Christmas where the children randomly exclaimed, "PHOTOBOMB!" without really understanding what it meant... until SOMEONE "ruined" their annual Christmas picture with a concrete example:
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| *Mark seems to think that the term "ruined" is subjective here. |
This Cousins' Christmas, I wondered how many more years she would sit in this small rocking chair, as she does every December, and open her presents with such childlike wonder and awe:
This Cousins' Christmas, I gave thanks for grandparents who play, snuggle, and lovingly plan every detail of our holiday celebrations:
We toasted to this Cousins' Christmas, to children who are old enough to go out to a restaurant and entertain themselves... which means we can all enjoy a fun family meal out. No more diapers, strollers, and naps to work around... Cheers!
We love our annual birthday party for Jesus on Sunday morning of Cousins' Christmas weekend. The children shared their own special gifts with baby Jesus, and whether it was a song on the piano, singing a Christmas carol, playing the recorder, or reading a Bible verse, they all were a part of the special Christmas message:
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| Blowing out candles on Baby Jesus' birthday cake. |
And oh, how lucky we are to be able to continue our celebrations with Great Grammy and more of our extended family at another special Christmas gathering. More cousins, more presents, and more special memories together!
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| Surrounding sweet little Charlotte with her adoring big cousins/fans. |
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| Luke teaching 2 year-old Everett how to play Connect Four. |
On Monday, our family went to Christmas Town at Busch Gardens, where we saw 8 million beautiful twinkling lights, watched spectacular live shows, rode several rides, and toured a magical Christmas wonderland. It was a special treat to receive Christmas Town passes, and we loved this unique part of our Cousins' Christmas weekend:
With so much fun and excitement last weekend, it's hard to believe that Christmas day is still to come. What a very merry Cousins' Christmas it was this year!
