Festivus for the Rest of Us

It's always fun to celebrate Festivus with the extended Weeks/Gosa clan. Everyone joined us for a day of feats of strength (bowling) and general holiday merriment. Lots of wedding talk as Brian and Marykate are making their plans for this coming September. We are all so excited for them! As well, it was our anniversary (12 years!) so that got a brief mention and congratulations all around before we turned back to talk of gowns and locations, as well as of the Festivus Bean. This year Fer and Wendy scored and wore the royal Santa hats for dessert. As well, Uncle Terrill helped us set up the Wii, so the cousins got first try with our new games.

Christmas Day in Tivoli

After Christmas morning in South Orange, we packed up and headed to Tivoli for an afternoon with extended family there.

Christmas Morning in South Orange

We had a lovely morning opening presents in South Orange. We started with stockings and then moved to gifts under the tree. Fer and Wendy are pretty amazing in their self-control and gratitude -- they are really quite calm throughout, take the time to look at each present and enjoy it, and are very sweet in saying "thank you" for the different gifts. For Fer, there was something of a One Direction theme between various items and then her big gift, tickets to the One Direction stadium concert in August. She was so excited to open those! For Wendy, it was more variety as she does not have one big thematic enthusiasm as Fer does. Both girls were very excited that Santa (finally, in their opinion) brought us a Wii!

Stockings:

Tree:

Christmas Eve in South Orange

We had a wonderful dinner with Tia B and Uncle El, joined by the Cannings. Afterwards we went to church and then returned home for our traditional viewing of "Small One." The girls loved being with their "cousins" and also opening the first gift of Christmas -- new pajamas!

Christmas Fun: Cookie Baking Party

We had a few friends over to bake Christmas cookies and watch a few holiday videos, the Grinch being an annual favorite along with Frosty.

Afterwards we decorated our Christmas tree (finally), and we ended the evening with birthday cake for Henry!

Nutcracker with Gigi and Grand-dad

Gigi and Grand-dad invited us to see The Nutcracker, which was a holiday favorite of mine as a child. We got dressed up and went into the city for the big event. Fer and Wendy liked it very well, but I realized after a whispered question from Wendy about 10 minutes in that I had neglected to explain perhaps the most fundamental quality of ballet -- that the dancers do not talk. The girls were somewhat bemused and confused by that but recovered to enjoy some of the amazing aspects of the show -- the set, the costumes, the incredible growing Christmas tree, the dancing children.

Thanksgiving in Virginia

We had a wonderful time celebrating with the Weeks and Gosa clan in Virginia!