Christmas Time Has Come....

....And Gone!!! All the presents unwrapped. Both families have been visited. Hectic air travel accomplished (NO KIDDING!). Now Mommy and Daddy are back to work.


This Christmas things were a little different than last year. I have a job, which limited me to less than one week of vacation. Christopher is older now and is more able to travel (willingly or not). We asked Mimi and Pawpaw to come down a week before we went to Ohio to spend a little more time with them. Christopher loved having the extra entertainment, even if it was met with just as much supervision. The first two days were spent relaxing and enjoying the company. We went at some point to see Santa, and to my surprise Christopher did an AMAZING job. He went right up to Santa and started to play with his beard and Glasses. We did more running around while they were here, but for the most part of the time it rained leaving us with minimal choices.


EARLY Saturday morning we flew up to Ohio for our short visit with the rest of our family. Christopher did very well on the flights (considering we had no windows on the row that we were in). I think that I enjoyed the subway in the Atlanta airport the most :). I have never been on a subway so that was a new experience for me. We were very lucky that we made it in to Ohio when we did. Shortly after arriving we started hearing about flights being canceled or delayed do to weather.

There were quite a few people who had still never met Christopher, and we were excited for that experience. Sunday was the "Cotter Family Pictures" that had never been taken before because of the distance. The pictures were amazing, and the boys did great! Christopher loved the photographer with her stuffed kitty, and Aiden just like to laugh at Christopher laughing. That night was the extended Lynch family Christmas (Jeff's mom's side of the family). Mimi counted 29 people and 9 of those were kids under 10.

Monday brought with it a day to shop for last minute gifts for the Jividen Family Christmas (my side) on Tuesday. It also was a day to relax and catch up on some much needed sleep. Jeff and I also took Christopher out to the Columbus Zoo for their Winter Wonderland. The entire zoo was covered in lights. It is honestly the most beautiful part of Christmas I have ever seen. We got Christopher in to bed that night and then headed out to meet up with our friend Tyler for a night out.

Tuesday was all about packing, the Jividen Family Christmas, and mentally preparing for the trip home on Wednesday. My favorite part of the Jividen Family Christmas is the "Grandma Pettet Gift" (also know as the White Elephant Gift). These are gag gifts that people bring to give out for laughter. It could be anything from a stuffed fish or a ceramic butt (which happened to be the gift Jeff received this year). It makes Christmas much more enjoyable not worrying about the price of gifts or whether the receiving person will even like what you have given them.

Wednesday was our flight home, again VERY early. This flight was more stressful because we only had 25 minutes between our connecting flights. We literally ran through the Atlanta airport, and successfully made it to our flight.

We are now home and have very much enjoyed our Christmas adventure. Below are pictures from our trip, Christmas day pictures will be on the next post ;)