Well it seems so like me to be posting for December in February. What can I say... I have been busy and haven't gotten the chance to catch up on my blog posting (so forgive me). It feels like we have been battling the winter cold and flu season for a good three months now and the Giaretta house just can't seem to stay healthy.
Anyways, in our families we celebrate Christmas the whole month of December. Having two big families, we tend to have holiday parties all month long. The weekend before Christmas we went to Brian's grandparents house (Grandpa & Grandma Binkowski) to celebrate Christmas with them. We had a delightful afternoon having lunch together, exchanging presents, and just relaxing.
Usually we spend Christmas Eve and Christmas with both my family and Brian's family. We end up going back and forth from one party to the next, but this year was different. Because my Mom was sick over Christmas, we decided to postpone my family's celebration until over New Years weekend.
On Christmas Eve the girls were a bit under the weather so Brian and I went to separate Christmas Eve services (so that we could both go) while the other one watched the girls at home. I was bummed not to be surrounded by my family at church but the Willow Creek North Shore Christmas service was so incredible. There was so much love and worship present that it made me feel as if I was surrounded by family-my church family :-) After going to service we debated whether we should take the girls to the family Christmas party that night. They seemed better after resting all day so we decided to head over to Brian's grandparents house (Grandpa & Grandma Giaretta) for the traditional Christmas Eve party. There we enjoyed visiting with family, eating dinner together, and watching the kids open presents.
On Christmas morning we awoke to see that Santa had visited our house :-) The girls ripped into the presents under the tree and they were so excited to see that Santa ate the cookies they left for him!! He even left them a little note :-) Olivia was so happy that she got a firetruck, which she asked Santa for (lol) and Brooklyn got her very own Bitty Baby. When present time was finished we got dressed and headed over to Papa & GG's house (Brian's parents). On our way we stopped at the cemetery to visit my dad's grave and the girls blew kisses up to heaven to grandpa :-) The rest of the day we spent at Brian's parent's house where we enjoyed the day lounging with family, eating a fabulous lunch, opening even more presents (it seems to never end in our families), and spending time with the people we love.
