Nate was able to stay a few extra days after Christmas and we had a blast hanging with him! We played Charades, watched scary movies, played video games, and did an Escape Room (The Nate, Rachael, KJ and Tay team beat out the girls!) . And Nate made us all dinner on his last night - the kids helped grate the cheese. We loved having some Bonus Nate time!! Miss him already!
Like most things this year, Christmas was bittersweet as we were really missing Chuckee Boy. It was hard to believe he wasn't going to be at the dinner table with us for Christmas dinner, but we honored him with a toast and Teri gifted us with a grove of trees planted in his honor in a Michigan National Forest.
The sweet part of the holiday was everyone being together. Maddie, Eddie, Hallie, Nate, Grandma T and Grandpa all arrived on the 23rd. We played Wavelength, watched Christmas movies, talked, laughed and ogled at Hallie! On the 24th, we headed over to Cullen and KJ's for dinner. KJ put on an AMAZING meal, and it was great to play with Ben.
Christmas morning was relaxing - There were PLENTY of gifts (so much more this year now that we have Hallie and Benny Boo), a huge brunch and matching jammies. We had some special Chuckee gifts for my mom which brought on the tears and hugs. Tay gave Uncle Nate a gag gift of a 10 of spades card that was wrapped in 4 boxes - Nate LOVED it! Avery gifted all of us with family snuggies. We surprised Tay with 2 days in Harry Potter World during Spring Break - he was so surprised and grateful that he cried with emotion - It made me so happy. Cullen, KJ and Ben joined us for dinner along with Uncle Du and Lai Ma. We had another giant round of gifts to open. Ben was SUPER busy and played a ball throwing game with Tay that had him belly laughing for 30 minutes. After an amazing dinner and cookies, we all curled up and watched Smile 2 (oddly a horror movie to close out the day).
We were sad to see everyone leave on the 26th but SO grateful for the time together. We know how lucky we are to all have each other!
The kids, along with some friends, helped me get our Chex Mix, Cornflake Wreaths and Grandma's Christmas Cookies all ready for the holidays. It's always a labor of love and Avery and I had some challenges rolling the dough this year. But we made it work, and are excited for everyone to get here and enjoy the treats!!
