Yet Another Very Merry Christmas in Ohio (2014)

We are back in the ATL after a great Christmas in Ohio.
Our plan was to drive up and stop in Asheville for a night so my brother Brrrian could ride with us.  He decided he just wanted to hang at his cabin, so we hopped on a flight instead.  One hour flight as opposed to 12 hours driving? That was a no brainer.  Just one showing of AristoCats and we arrived without incident!

Getting a flight back was hard (as it is every year!) but we didn't want to think about that a week in advance.
My parents house was all decked out with lights.  And even though not a professional job (ha!), it looked pretty great!

Yet my dad still had some lights left that were not working, so "the pros" got to work and in no time we had this tree wrapped!

Being there several days before Christmas allowed Ernesto and I to have a date night and finish up our shopping sans kids.  (thanks mom and dad!)  It was wonderful!  We leisurely perused several different stores, ate a delicious dinner and caught a movie.  Oh and we went to Starbucks - twice!! We were out til 1am.  Yeah, we are wild and crazy like that!  It was our first time in a movie theatre in 3 years! So sad.  At least we picked the right movie to see after our hiatus.  Gone Girl!  OMG.  Go.  See.

Unfortunately, the weather did not deliver this year and it was a white wet Christmas.  Last year the kids were being pulled on a "sled" in the snow and this year?
Wheelbarrow rides in the soggy grass.  Reliably though, we had full days of family fun!  Bread was made, cookies frosted and thrift stores scoured presents wrapped! 
Several get togethers were at my brother Bill's house starring the Hostess with the Mostest.

Who looks good in a bow encrusted skirt?  She does!  Who is always prepared to feed everyone delicious, healthy food? She is!   Who takes 5 million pictures (literally!) and always send out a photo Christmas card? She does! Whose every shelf/wall/inch of the house is decorated with Christmas decor?  It's....it's Super Barbie!!  Who is going to load up on after Christmas sales? Me! That's right!  I need more more more!! It just feels so special.  Thanks for the inspiration Barb!!

It's so fun seeing the little cousins together.  Mateo follows [5 year old] Eleanor around like a little puppy dog and it's adorable.  They watched The Grinch one night curled up together in a chair.  Too Cute.

On Christmas Eve, Mateo was waaaaaaay to excited/tired to go to bed.  Back and forth, in and out of bed.  I must have tucked him in at least 10 times.  I got frustrated, raised my voice and he I ended up in tears putting him to bed.  Ugh!  Oh the guilt.  That did not feel very Christmasy Mami.  Thank God my sister was right there to crack a joke at the perfect time and make me laugh.  ps. Parenting is hard.
Amazing how much better you feel after a good night sleep, right?
Christmas morning started at 7am and boy were these guys excited when they walked out and saw that Santa had eaten the cookies we left for him and left all of this-

They worked on beheading the chocolate santas in their stockings until grandma and grandpa were seated to watch the chaos that is Christmas morning.

We opened all our gifts from Santa and to eachother before the rest of the fam came over to my moms.  Mateo had so much fun tearing through his presents barely stopping to see what was inside.

Marcelo, on the other hand, could barely be convinced to open another.  He wanted to stop and play with each gift.  His big brother urged him to move on.

Mateo could not understand why there were still unwrapped presents under the tree when we were finished.  I told him they were gifts we were GIVING.  He wouldn't stop checking with me though that I missed one that was his.

In fact, later I found two unwrapped presents behind my bed.  He had snuck back there to open them.  I guess the suspense was just killing him.

His excitement reminds me of...well...me.  However, I would never ever go as far as sneaking to open a gift.  I hate spoiled suprises.

Finally after everyone arrived, we enjoyed a delicious Christmas meal of ham, cheesy potatoes, broccoli casserole (both lo-cal dishes!) salad and my mom's homemade bread....and we got to the presents!!!



...and the annual [obligatory] family pictures 
Girls, girls girls!



Mateo got a lot of new puzzles and games...we tried out the Spanish bingo (ie: Loteria) and it was a hit!


...and of course Santa didn't forget this little boys obsession with garbage trucks and trash bins.

The kids had a little dance party to Mateo's current favorite song:  Stolen Dance by Milky Chance.

It took the boys all of five minutes to fall asleep that night.

We were mentally prepared to rent a car and drive home because there were so many other standbys flying to Atlanta.   We thought we would try for the 7am flight and then rent the car right there at the airport if we didn't make it.
As luck had it, we squeezed on that  flight.  Kids were excited, parents relieved!
   
The last minute jetway run and counting Delta planes.

We were home a couple hours later!  Waiting for our chauffeur to pick us up curbside.
It was nice to come home to a house that was pretty clean and a christmas tree wasn't totally dead! Yeah!

I hope all of you had a wonderful christmas too!