Christmas at Casselberry!

We hosted Christmas for the Markham family this year at our house. My brother's family made it in from Seattle between numerous snow storms and my parents drove into town on the 23rd. This was the first time we had seen Elias since he has been walking. Kaleb loved having a playmate and probably showed Elias some not-so-great moves/words ("No"). Kaleb was not quite sure about sharing his Gramy and Papa, but eventually let Elias have some attention.

The festivities got kicked off with decorating a gingerbread house on the 24th. I was at work during the morning, but enjoyed text updates from Dennis about the excitement of putting the house together! Once I got home, we all took part in decorating the house. There were many laughs!

Christmas morning was exciting as Kaleb and Elias both enjoyed playing with the train table that Santa brought as Kaleb's big present. We all enjoyed unwrapping presents and seeing everyone's reactions to all the fun things we bought each other. Dennis and I got each other a Wii and he and Jay enjoyed battling it out in boxing and baseball. The little boys enjoyed the excitement and would dance when the fun music came on.

Dennis' parents joined us for dinner Christmas evening. We had all kinds of good help and delicious food.

The weather was unseasonably warm over Christmas so on 12/26, we all ventured to the Missouri Botanical Gardens’ holiday train exhibit. It was beautiful and enormous. After lunch and naps we headed over to the”Wild Lights at the St. Louis Zoo.” Where we strolled through the zoo, listened to Christmas music, and admired the 50,000 lights. The boys got to ride on the carousel.

On 12/27 we went to the Magic House. The boys had a lot of fun exploring all of the exhibits (along with the rest of St. Louis - it was packed!!). That night we went to dinner at PF Changs - the boys loved the fried calamari! Afterwards we walked around in the nearby mall. Kaleb had a smoothie that he generously shared with Elias.

We headed back to my parents in Holts Summit on Sunday, 12/28. The weather was still great, so we went to a park near our old elementary school then to a train exhibit at a nearby hotel. At Grammy and Papa’s they set their train set up on the coffee table. They have a lot of fun toys that they have collected for the boys! The next day we all went shopping at the outlet mall at the Lake. it is nice that it is only a short 30 min. drive from my parents. That evening Uncle Bob and Aunt Brenda came over for dinner and the boys put on a show with their ice cream eating skills!

Jay, Aimee and Elias flew out early on the 31st after some teary goodbyes the night before. It was a wonderful holiday with lots of great memories. I look forward to many Christmas in the feature and watching the kids excitement.