We're Home for Christmas!

We arrived back home in Virginia on December 18th. We had a two great flights and a long layover in JFK. The children kept busy which allowed me to watch movies on the long-haul flight. ;-) When we got to the baggage claim at our airport - Joe was there with flowers and a balloon! We were sooo happy to see Daddy and be back on American soil! Aunt M joined us too at the baggage claim and it was wonderful to see her. We needed two cars to pick us up with our luggage and etc. When we arrived at our house it was all lit up for Christmas and decorated by my close girlfriends. It was awesome! I have an amazing spouse and friends!

Joe even put up the Christmas tree for us 

I took pictures of all the signs on the house the next day since it was too dark the night we got home. 

I just LOVE this sign especially the, "remember us?" - with their family
pictures attached (just in case we forgot what they looked like) 

Candy Canes  on the lamp post

The garage doors were decorated

Mother Nature even left us some snow on the ground

The next few days we visited with lots of family and friends that came through the house. The children were still getting up before 5am!!…thats right 5AM!!! But it was wonderful to have the children back in their own individual rooms at night. When you are used to living in a tiny house its amazing how spacious my house feels now. 
We had a few last minute errands to run before Christmas and get a real Christmas tree for the family room. The children were just loving being home back with their toys, crafts, etc. They were literally pulling every.single.thing out to play with. I think Joe had a shock to his system when he saw the state of the house when he returned from work. 
On Christmas Eve, Joe was home early from work. We did a little last minute wrapping and got the children dressed for the big family dinner. When we looked outside it looked like there was a blizzard…it only lasted 10 minutes but it was beautiful and so festive for Christmas!

Then we went over to Grandpa and Grandma C's house for dinner. Afterwards we went to midnight mass at 10pm. The children all did great at mass. I thought L was going to sleep through the whole thing.  But she had a power nap right before mass started and was awake during the whole mass. Hopefully now all the children are old enough that we can start this tradition of going to midnight mass. 

Dressed for Midnight Mass