Merry Christmas Part 2 (Celebrating with the Blankinships)

A couple of weekends before Christmas the Blankinships drove down from Missouri to celebrate with us. For days all Drew and Ben could talk about was seeing their cousin Dresi. So when they finally got here the boys were entertained the whole time. We packed quite a bit into just a few days. We kicked things off by taking the kids to paint Christmas ornaments and even MawMaw painted a little one for her own tree. Of course you know our kids - they are always up early - so we were there when it opened and had the place all to ourselves for most of the time we were there. I think Dres could've stayed there all day long she loved it so much!Here are the cousins in front of our Christmas treeand the obligatory "silly face picture"The boys loved opening all of their presents and loved giving everyone else theirs. Here Drew is showing us his Storm Trooper talking helmet and Storm Trooper gun. He and Ben each got one and if you come to our house at certain times and listen to the sounds coming from the playroom, you'd swear you were in the Star Wars movie. They were so fun to watch this year with the presents. I think they enjoyed handing out the presents and helping everyone else open theirs, as much as they enjoyed their own. What a blessing to see your children getting as excited about what they are giving as they are getting. I hope they are always that way.
After lots of excitement and some much needed rest, they woke up the next morning for some good snuggle time on the couch with Dres while waiting patiently for..........Daddy and PawPaw to put the new trampoline together! That's right! MawMaw and PawPaw gave the boys a trampoline for Christmas. So PawPaw and Michael braved the super cold weather and spent several hours putting it together so that the kids could jump for a little bit.
Talk about excitement! Even the cold weather couldn't keep them off of it. And rather than fight an uphill battle that I couldn't win, I bundled them up really well and grabbed the camera for some pictures. I don't think they minded the chill of the morning at all, especially when I brought out some hot chocolate.

We all rewarded their hard work with a trip to the Pancake Pantry (a must every time they visit, with no objections from us!) and then took the rest of the day pretty easy in front of the fireplace to stay warm. Which was great because its always just so good to visit and watch the kids play.

What a great way to kick off our Christmas season! We sure do love you guys, and had so much fun. Our only complaint is that we missed Uncle Dan who couldn't come because he had to be on call for work. Merry Christmas one and all!