Our 2016 Christmas Break

I’ve been a bit unplugged these last few weeks and it’s been so sweet to be fully present with family and friends.  We ended 2016 with some fun adventures and I’m feeling refreshed and ready to jump into 2017! Since I’ve missed the last two Friday posts, I’ll just combine all the fun stories and pictures from our last few weeks in one massive photo dump of a post.  Enjoy!

We started off break celebrating  Christmas with Jordan’s family.  We headed to our church for a beautiful Christmas Eve celebration then spent an hour eating yummy food and opening a few presents with the little ones at Jordan’s parents house.  Caleb actually did great being stretched past bedtime and I loved seeing the excitement in my niece and nephew about all that lay ahead the next morning!

Christmas morning at Jordan’s parents is always so fun, and this year was no exception. We ate lots of French toast casserole, drank way too much coffee, and had a blast opening lots of thoughtful gifts.  The highlight of the morning was when our niece and nephew opened our gifts to them.

We had a giant box full of styrofoam peanuts from something someone had shipped to us, and Jordan had the silly idea to place all of the wrapped gifts we’d gotten for them inside it (we’d gotten each of them a book and a small gift). We wrapped that big box and had the kids dig for their presents! They were all about it and loved diving headfirst into the box more than the presents themselves.  It was so silly and fun and we were all cracking up for a good 20 minutes as they went to town.  I love little moments like that and the sweet memories they become!

A few days after Christmas we headed out to California to visit my family.  It’s the fourth plane trip we’ve made with Caleb and overall he did a great job! He slept through most of our first flight, did great hanging out on the layover, and was only a bit fussy on the second flight.  Finding ways to entertain a little one trapped on a plane was a bit daunting but he was pretty fascinated by little things like pulling every magazine and safety card out from the seat pockets and walking up and down the aisles.  And on the plane ride back, he actually fell asleep on my chest, something my independent little guy hasn’t done in quite a while.  I sure did love those snuggles!

Once we got to California, we started another sweet week of time with my family.  The days are slow and we spend lots of time just being together.  We spent a lot of time this trip hanging with Caleb on the floor while he crawled around and explored the house I grew up in.  He actually got up and crawled on his knees for the first time while we were there and it was fun for my parents to see that milestone!

We weren’t able to squeeze in as many lunch trips as we normally do due to naptime, but we did eat at one yummy brunch place.  We stuffed ourselves with some yummy brunch food with a Mexican flair and walked through downtown Santa Ana enjoying the beautiful weather! Caleb got to spend some quality time with my brother Alex and his wife Melissa, something we loved so much since they will likely be moving to Switzerland this summer so my brother can continue his work in particle physics at Cern.  We sure will miss them!

Caleb got to see my grandma and a few other family members, as well as snuggle some other family friends like his abuelita Lupe.  I love seeing him explore and get to know all these people who’ve been a part of my life.

Great Grandma Juanita!

Exploring Uncle Alex’s super cool beard…

Snuggles with Abuelita Lupe

One obvious highlight of visiting California is an escape from the cold weather in KC.  The first few days we were there were 70 degrees and sunny and we loved hanging outside and taking Caleb to the park! He had his first experience in a swing and after a few scared first seconds and lots of cheers and encouragement from us, he decided it wasn’t so bad!

We also got to spend some time with my friend Katy, her husband Ryan, and their sweet little boy Liam who’s about six months older than Caleb.  I grew up down the street from Katy and she and her husband recently bought the house next to my parents.  We may only get to see them twice a year but I sure do love those precious few hours we get together! 

Caleb never really switched to California time, so he was up at about 4 AM every morning and went to bed by 5:30 PM or so every night.  It wasn’t ideal, but it did mean we were able to get out and have a date night or two while grandma watched the monitor at home.

We ate yummy In N Out with my brother and sister in law, had all-you-can eat sushi TWICE (Jordan’s favorite), and did one fancy date night at a local restaurant where we had the most delicious meal we’ve had in months.  I ate some amazing prosciutto wrapped scallops with a saffron risotto and Jordan had the rack of lamb, and we finished it off with a chocolate souffle.  We may or may not have died and gone to heaven, y’all.  So good!

I wish my family lived closer and we could see them more often, but for now, we will soak in every minute of our time with them and look forward to when they come out to visit us in KC!