Cousins Christmas

 

"When there's a will, there's a way" could be the title for Cousins Christmas this year!  Our Winterhoff family was sad to miss our annual beach week together this past summer, and L&L consoled themselves by announcing, "As long as we still have Christmas together, it will be ok!".  As fall progressed and everyone realized that COVID was still going to be around for the holidays, we began to brainstorm possibilities on how we could safely gather, and we came up with the following plan:  We'd scope out the weather for each weekend in December and make a call by midweek as to whether it looked like an outdoor gathering in Williamsburg would be feasible.  The Richmond and Charlottesville families would drive in for the day, and we'd stay with Bean and Poppy for the weekend, since we are farther away and able to quarantine ahead of time.  The first weekend in December was a bust.  It was rainy and too cool to be comfortable outside.  However, the second weekend looked promising, and we did it!  Bean and Poppy found the perfect outdoor spot for us, where each family had their own picnic table and space, and we all had lunch and exchanged Christmas gifts.  

Here's what our 2020 Christmas party looked like:

Socially distanced back-to-back brother presents: 

Girl cousins back-to-back gifts.

Boys' turn!

The perfect shirt for our dog obsessed girl!

She's a professional dog cuddler AND a bookworm!

Luke was so happy to receive his new kite and tested it out right away!

We had a birthday party for baby Jesus, complete with cupcakes and the Luke 2 Scripture reading:

After presents were opened, the cousins played mini golf:

...and had a dunking contest:

Luke shows off his b-ball skills!

Leah's dunk!

There were some friendly matches of table tennis:

...and they ALL declared that one of their favorite parts of the day was sliding down the rails at the visitors' center!  

Disclaimer:  The daddies (& Poppy) were in charge of them at this time, proving that dads are more fun indeed!

Face masks and all, we may have appreciated and treasured this Christmas together more than ever, and are SO thankful for a safe, wonderful celebration with our Winterhoff family!

Another fun highlight of our weekend was a visit to Colonial Williamsburg.  It's gorgeous this time of year, with all the ornate wreaths and holiday decorations, and we loved our walk through the colonial village: 

L&L gave Bean and Poppy their Christmas presents on Friday night, and Luke showed off how tall he was (one of his favorite things to do each time he sees grandparents):

Sorry, Bean!  He's not even close in height anymore!

2020 has reminded us that time together is one of the best gifts of all!  

Merry Christmas!

Christmas in PA

We felt so lucky that we were able to travel to Mimi's house for Christmas in the midst of COVID, and we enjoyed a cozy few days in PA.  The weather was cold and rainy, so we stayed inside and watched movies, played games, read books, and did a jigsaw puzzle.  We also played ping pong: lots and lots of ping pong.  The kids LOVED Mimi's ping pong table and we had numerous tournaments in her basement, but I neglected to take a picture of this.  We watched our church's livestream Christmas Eve service in our pjs (it really was a pandemic perk not to pack fancy dress clothes this year!), and the kids set out a cookie plate for Santa:

Leah took over Daddy's job of reading Twas the Night Before Christmas,

and soon enough, the children were nestled, all snug in their beds!

Luke announced that he set his alarm for 7:00 a.m. on Christmas morning, but Leah beat him to it by waking up at 6:53 and running down the hall to rouse her sleeping brother:

The kids asked for a Nintendo Switch as their big present from Santa, and they hinted to us all month, "Mom and Dad, please let Santa know that he needs to order our Switch on Amazon in plenty of time for Christmas..."  (Even though they are too old to believe in the magic, they should have known that Santa is a planner and ordered their Switch well before Halloween!)

They also received several Switch games and were excited to start playing right away:

Santa also filled everyone's stockings with lots of goodies:

After breakfast, it was time to open presents.  The kids did a great job handing out gifts to everyone and it was a wonderful Christmas day:

Merry Christmas to all of our family and friends!

Joy to the World!

We've been getting in the Christmas spirit this month, and have found lots of ways to celebrate the joy of the season.  The weekend after Thanksgiving, we picked out our Christmas tree:

We adore this rustic farm near our church and return there every year to choose our tree:

This photo captures this season of our lives perfectly, face masks and all.  I spy a surly 12 year-old who can't imagine anything worse than taking a selfie with his entire family.  The pleading look in his eyes says it all:

I knew better than to insist that the above grumpy tween pose with his 2020 Christmas ornament that afternoon, but luckily, Leah accommodated me.  Both kids have the same ornament this year, which is a photo of the special handprint plaque that they made:

"When the world moved apart, together was our favorite place."

As L&L placed ornaments on the tree, Millie supervised the entire time, and it was darling.  I'm posting way too many pictures of this event, but each pose seems cuter than the one before:

All that hard work means it's time to curl up for a nap by the tree!

Something else that's given us a lot of joy is dressing up Millie in Winnie's holiday attire.  Last December, Millie was still a small puppy, so this was the first year that she was able to don her big sister's special hand-me-downs.     

Check out our fluffy Santa:

...and an uncertain reindeer:

Here's a busy little elf:

Someone even has Christmas dog toys, because our family loves a good theme:

Millie decided that if she had to wear ridiculous holiday outfits, then her brother and sister should participate too:

Yes, Leah is wearing Millie's Santa dog costume!

These were actually the kids' outfits for Crazy Christmas week for Facetime piano lessons:

Luke's tuba Christmas hat and shirt got a lot of mileage this month.  After attending our community's Joy Tuba World holiday concert last December, Luke decided that he wanted to participate in this year's event.  Due to COVID, the concert was cancelled, but we still found a fun way for this Tuba Dude to listen to joyful Christmas carols played by his favorite instrument:

We found a YouTube video of the 2019 Kennedy Center Tuba Christmas performance, and we all enjoyed watching this beautiful brass concert from the comfort of our couch:

Even Millie loves the tuba now!

We've found joy this month in familiar Christmas traditions, including the drive through light display at Tanglewood Park.  This was a festive, fun evening for all of us, and we wore our pjs and sipped hot chocolate as we drove through the park:

A brand new Christmas event was Winter WonderLights at the outdoor zoo section of the Greensboro Science Center.  There were many different light displays, and this was a neat way to safely celebrate the season as we walked through the various attractions:

Decorating cut out Christmas cookies and gingerbread houses were joyful stay-at-home activities this month.  This year, I was smart and bought kits for both at Trader Joes = Mom Win!

We also celebrated our family Christmas and exchanged gifts with each other the weekend before our holiday travels.  Luke and Leah usually buy presents at their school store, but this year, they went "shopping" in a store that we set up at home.  Items available for purchase were marked with discounted prices/post-it note price tags, and each kid chose an item to buy for their sibling, Mom, Dad, and Millie.  It's one of my favorite parts of Christmas to watch the joy on L&L's faces as they give these carefully selected gifts to their recipients.  

Leah giving Daddy the gift that she chose for him.

Sitting back-to-back to open presents is a Winterhoff family tradition, where you open the gifts at the same time if you are receiving similar items:

One of the kids' back to back presents that made me laugh were their electric toothbrushes.  L&L were so excited when they opened these that they paused our Christmas celebration and ran straight into the bathroom to brush their teeth!

This may be the only time that toothbrushing is a joyful activity! 

There were several new games, toys, and gifts to keep the kids entertained for the rest of the weekend.  This kiddo still loves Legos and this fills my heart with joy:

Leah received an electric scooter from Grandpa and she was SO excited to open this wishlist item:

May the wonder of Christ's birth fill your holiday season with joy!