Christmas day with the Easteps

Christmas this year differed from tradition.  We usually spend this holiday with Joe's family in Illinois.  We only get up there once or twice a year, so it's very special for us to visit at Christmas and have that time to catch up and visit with everyone.  This year we couldn't make it.  Joe started a new job a few months ago and I used  all of my vacation time due to illness over the summer.  I know it hurt Joe terribly to miss another holiday with is family.  The only saving grace was that we were able to visit over Labor Day weekend this year.  While that didn't make up for missing my favorite holiday with his family, it took away the sting.

Since we couldn't get to Illinois, I thought it would be nice to visit my sister and her family for the weekend.  We hadn't seen them since summer, and since we never spend Christmas with my family it seemed like an ideal opportunity.  The thought of seeing my 7 year old nephew's face as he unwrapped gifts was all the incentive I needed to hop in the car and make the 5 hour drive.  We drove up Saturday and spent Christmas Eve with them.  We played games, watched movies and caught up.  It was wonderful.  The next day we came over around 11 and stayed until after midnight.  We missed Gavin opening most presents, but I'd had a rough morning and couldn't get there any earlier.  We did get to watch him open ours though and thanks to some great hints from Mom and Dad, he loved everything we got him.  That made us happy of course.  All in all we just had a great time together, which is what it's all about.  My sister is thrilled about becoming an Aunt and Gavin is so excited to finally have a cousin.  We explained that the baby will be small and no fun to play with for a few years but Gavin doesn't care, he loves babies and can't wait.

This is Gavin and I playing Jenga.  He is really good at this game and we had so much fun playing together!