Christmas in Lyons

Wow, I guess I kind of fell off the blogosphere, there, didn't I?

We spent a wonderful ten days in Lyons, which included six straight days of celebrating various events in the middle -- Louisa's baptism, Grandma Anne's (my mom's mom) 80th birthday, Christmas, and Chad's and my 10th wedding anniversary -- and then New Year's at the end of our trip!  I promise to post more on the other events later, but for starters, here are some pictures from Christmas Eve, Christmas #1 (with the Lunney side of the family), and Christmas #2 (with the Blaisdell side of the family).


The girls left out milk and cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. 
Amelia dictated the note to Santa and signed it herself!
This picture was taken post-Santa's visit.

A picture of our stockings, also post-Santa's visit

As has been our practice for the last few years, we all piled into Grandma Anne's two spare bedrooms.  Grandma Anne is always so nice to let us invade, and the girls just LOVE playing with everything there: the bear table, the dollhouse, all of Grandma Anne's figurines, and her cat, Ruby.

On Christmas morning, the girls tackled their stockings and opened their gifts from Santa.

Amelia was SUPER excited that Santa brought her the kite that she asked for!

Yes, Louisa was generally happier about the paper than the toys!

After showers were taken and seasonal attire was donned, we met up with my dad's side of the family at Aunt Kathy's house. 


Aunt Steff and Louisa

My cousin Kelly's little boy, Mason, fixing his car.  He's quite handy with his screwdriver!  :)

My cousin Alex's car collection was a big hit with the girls.

We usually have Lunney Christmas at my grandparents' house, but my grandfather took at bad fall a couple of months ago and is still recuperating from that.  So Christmas Days #1 and #2 also included trips by assorted family members to the Wayne County Nursing Home, where Gramps is resting and rehabilitating his hip.  Somehow, I failed to get any pictures of him during our trip...  Granddaughter fail!

Blaisdell Christmas took place in two locations.  First stop was Aunt Lez and Uncle Steve's for brunch and some present-opening.  

Nonna and Louisa in the kitchen



Aunt Lez and Aunt Laur and... their new Mah Jongg set!



Amelia twirling in her new tutu (thanks, Cole and Jay) with her new doll (thanks, Coleton)

Present-opening and picture-taking

Timmy and Wes manning the garbage bag

Leah and Aunt Steff helping Ramona with her new kaleidoscope

Getting accustomed to the giant family she didn't know she had...  Merry Christmas, Louisa!

After that, we headed over to Aunt Laur and Uncle PeeWee's for some sledding, followed by more food and more presents! 

Ramona sledding with Pa

Nala chasing Amelia down the hill

Timmy flying down "Rocket Run," as the hill is affectionately called 

Leah had the most finesse out of the sledders.

Me and my baby girl, all decked out in her snowsuit for the first time

Jenna and Penny, ready for more presents

The girls were absolutely worn OUT after two days of nonstop festivities and no naps (for the older two), but they had so much fun spending time with all of my extended family, in particular my "baby" cousins (who are now in middle school and high school -- yeah, THAT makes me feel old) and are just the most amazing people ever, according to Amelia and Ramona.  (To be fair, Leah, Timmy, and Jack are pretty great.)

Yep, I'm pretty sure the girls enjoyed their Christmas in Lyons.

More from our visit to be posted soon!