A Christmas trip

And we're back!

We got back late this afternoon from our annual "Christmas" trip out to California. We never actually stay for Christmas Day (I prefer to be home), but we always try to go out for the families Christmas Party.

I have to be honest, I wasn't totally into the idea of going this year. I mean, with a six week old baby and the party falling so close to Christmas Day, I was feeling pretty overwhelmed and stressed, but it ended up being a nice little vacation and I'm glad we went.

The boys love going out to Papa and Grandma's house. With three dogs, a huge yard, and three horses on the property, they are in seventh heaven. S's brother and sister were also in town, so they got plenty of play time with their aunt and uncle. They also had S's aunt and her husband visiting, so it was a full house.

 (R looks HUGE in this picture! He's actually not a giant..... it's just the angle!)

 (Yes, I"m still in PJ's in this picture. Hey, we were on vacation!)

It was nice to have a couple days to relax, and also to have a lot of extra helping hands around. S and I even got to sneak out for a later dinner one night, and one afternoon during naps we got out to see the newest Hunger Games movie. R still came with us for everything since I'm nursing, but not having to order of the kids menu or break up any fights made for a nice little date!

(Uncle and his nephews!)

The highlight, and main reason, of the trip was the Christmas Party. Every year, the weekend before Christmas, S's family does a big Christmas party that rotates houses. This year it was actually at my in-laws house. It was nice because we didn't have to worry about packing up the kids and traveling anywhere, but a little stressful with all the preparations. We were originally suppose to have R's baptism this weekend, but things got a bit "muddled" with everything going on. I was pretty adamant that we fit it in somewhere, because we did both of the other boys baptisms the Christmas after they were born and I wanted to follow suite with R. Fortunately the pastor of my in-laws church (where we do all the baptisms) is a really close friend of my father-in-law, so we did some major multi-tasking and R was baptized at the party. A little unorthodox, but hey, that's how we roll.

My mother-in-law also surprised everyone by renting a mechanical bull for the party. Let's just say, I haven't ridden a bull since college, but apparently it's like riding a bike. It was really fun, and L actually loved it. I had expected him to be a lot more hesitant about it, but he wanted to ride it right away and after going with both Daddy and his uncle he even rode it alone a few times! (Very slowly, of course!)

 (The whole family)

And of course, we had to do the gift exchange. My boys got sooo spoiled! Really, I can't even believe how many toys we brought back with us, and they haven't even opened the bulk of their Christmas presents yet!

And now we are back, and it feels good to be home . I'm a little stressed, I'll admit. There are suitcases that need to be unpacked, presents that still need to be wrapped, and I still haven't done the grocery shopping for Christmas dinner.... but, oh well. It will get done and I'm going to soak in the last two days of the Christmas season with my wonderful little family!