Christmas 2018

Christmas 2018

It truly is the most wonderful time of the year! Squeal! We’ve had a lot of family time, here at the house, because both girls are grounded- and it’s been really great!! They’ve been playing with the boys more, we’ve watched lots of Christmas movies together, we shipped (mostly on line) and wrapped all of our gifts early, we baked cookies, made candy, baked Christmas Day breakfast lunch and dinner. Our Christmas candy included a vegan version this year. (She claimed to LOVE it but never ate any of it.)

We got to Ohio for a December weekend to see Brody play football. Eric and Tommy were with him. We used our Christmas gift money from Grandma and Grandpa for our hotel. It was a 7 hour drive there and 6 hours back. We spent one night. It was fun!! There was an indoor pool. The kids were great the whole time. (Grandma also sent us handmade pillow cases!)

We spent a day with Poppop and Nan and Mandy’s group in DC celebrating for a day. So fun!

We never did get a photo with Santa. Jack would not get near him in DC. I thought this might be his last Santa Christmas- until he spent Christmas morning talking all about Santa, huh.  Jimmy was bawling on Christmas Eve because we heard Santa’s bells and he was afraid that we would not get home in time- he was frantic.

We went to Nan’s on Christmas Eve at 3pm for dinner. 

On the way there, we stopped at the Maternity Hospital and randomly Gave away our Christmas Jar. This was the second time that we headed there and it worked out great again. A young couple was walking out with their newborn son. We stuck $100 at the bottom of the jar again. I hope they have time to sort through the change, lol!! 

We got to Nan’s at 3. Everyone was there, including Aunt Donna and Mommom Matheson. Meg is ready to POP with baby #4! Mom made filet mignon for everyone with twice baked mashed potatoes, green beans, carrot casserole, chicken nuggets and Kraft Mac-n-cheese. Then she made a strawberry shortcake truffle, 2 pies and cookies galore. 

We exchanged gifts, caroled, played a game Jaylee threw together, and heard Santa’s bells before sprinting out the door. 

The kids were out by 9:30 which is 2 hours later than usual. Jason and I were asleep 1 hour later. The kids woke us at 4:08. I swear that I did not wake them!! It took us about 2 hours to exchange all of our gifts. It was so nice, relaxed, appreciated and fun! 

The aftermath!!

 Breakfast... still dark out!


Nan and Poppop always stop by on Christmas afternoon. They make the tree rival Santa!! 




Greek manicotti... YUM!

This year Jason had a scrapbook made for me about our Hawaii trip. BEAUTIFUL. It was handmade in Greece. There are empty pages for our next trip!!!

I got him a weekend away in Feb with tickets to see Jim Gaffigan, so I guess I sort of bought myself a gift too!

Jaylee got bedroom decor, stickers, makeup, makeup brushes, makeup, makeup, Adidas shoes and an Apple store gift card for the blue tooth ear buds she wants badly. 

Jennibelle got an awesome perm!!!  I wasn’t even sure if people still knew how to do perms. She looks beautiful!  She also got a Dwight Shrutte shirt, makeup, makeup brushes, Nike shorts and stickers for her computer. 

Jackson got the Hotwheels Shark Garage this year (this was the 3rd year that it was on his list), a new bike, a cool Art Kit, croc shoes, and then Jimmy made him a book about Rocky.

Jimmy got the games Pop the Pig and Risk, a scooter that lights up, a remote control BB8 and crocs from Jackson. Mandy’s family also got the boys an electrical circuit board. 

Washington DC Christmas

The Annual “Liounis Christmas Day” was moved from NYC to Washington DC this year. Jimmy was old enough to come along this year. We had to take two cars because there was 10 of us... Nan, Poppop, Mandy, Morgan, Cole, me, Jaylee, Jenni, Jackson and Jimmy. I drove, and I will never drive through DC again!  So many 4-6 lane circles... I kept getting in the wrong lane and taking the wrong turn. 

We started at the National Harbor Convention Center where we ate lunch, watched a Cirgque show and went to see the ice sculptures. It was awesome!!!  The boys sat in the front row during the Cirque show and I ended up videoing the boys because their reactions were so awesome! The Charlie Brown Ice sculptures were cool... literally!!  It was 9’ and we wore parkas. There was all different colored ice. The kids loved the ice slides!!! Then we saw Santa and ice skated for an hour. Ice skating was AWESOME. Jennibelle was pretty good. Jackson looked like a comedy act out there... flailing everywhere!!!  Jimmy started out using a ice skating “walker” but by the end could do it independently. Bystanders were literally cheering him on! He’s just so cute!!  (When he’s not whining, of course.)

Then we drove into downtown DC to go to the zoo for their Christmas lights. Very pretty! We even got a 90 minute train ride, lol. Luckily they had a shuttle to drive us back to our car because the entire path was downhill and I don’t know how Jaylee would have scooted herself all the way back up... literally. 

Then, we were all starving, so we stopped at Maggiano’s. 2 1/2 hours later, we were back on the road. Jimmy was EXHAUSTED!

It was a great day!!!!  No one argued. The weather was 40s and sunny. We were never rushed.  The activities were cool.

We’re so lucky that my parents give us this gift each year!!!!