Upon arriving home on Monday late afternoon after a splendid belated birthday dinner at Outback, we FINALLY drove up the drive way to our house.
Our home stood in its beautiful 2 story yellow vinyl splendor welcoming us back to Indiana.
Each of us expressed our excitement in our own way - Rob opened the fridge and with sheer joy announced, "COKE; BACON!" I walked around the house ready to hug the furniture while taking in all of our decorations. Madison raced up the stairs straight for her room and with a shout of excitement exclaim, "My Bed! My Lion King Sheets!" Meanwhile, Lillian gazed around the rooms as if in a strange world with perplexed look on her face, as if say, "We're not in Kansas anymore."
The first thing on The List (of course there had to be a list) was to put up the Christmas trees (yes, plural) and prepare the house for Christmas. Maybe it is a girl thing or maybe it is living where there is potential for snow but Christmas is not Christmas for me without a tree and decorations.
That evening and the following day was filled with decorating, unpacking and settling in to our life back home.
Rob was even able to go to the airport and release our boxes from Customs and bring them home with help from Pa and Joe. Of course, our life would not be normal without something breaking and we discovered our dishwasher was completely shattered. So, a quick trip to Lowe's gave us a new dishwasher that was delivered in an hour! With more help from Pa an Joe, our house was fully functional before the holidays.
Christmas Eve came quickly and we enjoyed attending the 7:30 family service at John Knox with my parents. The girls looked beautiful in their matching Christmas dresses from Grammie and Grampie.
That night we slept in our own beds and enjoyed our first Christmas morning EVER in our own
home. The girls were greeted with by their new chairs and stockings of gifts as we came down the stairs Christmas morning.
Madison was thrilled to receive her two requests: Rainbow Fairy books and a new Belle!
She was also excited to have her very own movie chair with her name on it to watch DVD's and a Minnie Mouse from Disneyland Paris.
Lillian seemed to enjoy unwrapping her gifts- at least until she freed her first scrap of paper, at which point she would cease trying to unwrap the gift and simply eat the paper she freed.
She also seems to enjoy her chair and especially loves her new cuddle Lion. (P.S. on the hat... We have found out Lillian's head is at the 90th percentile, so her clothes are too big for her and her hats are too small!)
After a breakfast of homemade waffles, we drove to Nana & Pa's house to spend Christmas with Nana, Pa, Omi, Opi, Aunt Beffie, and Uncle Sean. We enjoyed a lovely lunch of prime rib, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, red cabbage and waldorf salad.
While we each received several smaller gifts, our family gift this year was tickets to see the Broadway musical Lion King on the 26th. It was a great show and it was wonderful to see it all together as a family.
Happy Holiday's to everyone!
