Our Family Christmas

Since we were traveling back up north to visit with family for Christmas, we celebrated as a family early, on the 21^st. Our Christmas was very different this year, partly by choice and partly by necessity. Dad had to work, so we celebrated a little bit in the morning, but mostly in the evening when he got home.

 

Getting ready to open our stockings in the morning. We got some of our favorite candies!

That evening we had our big Christmas dinner. Here the table is all set and ready. It was actually the first time we’ve had a family dinner here with all of us together in the dining room.

We enjoyed cranberry chicken, green beans, edamame with sea salt, artichoke dip with crackers, and garlic mashed potatoes. It was really good!

Since we didn’t have a lot of time to do Christmas baking, we kept dessert simple. We made a birthday cake for Jesus, cracker brittle, and Knick Knack Noels.

Then it was time to open gifts! We didn’t have as many gifts this year by choice; we’re all so thankful for what God has already blessed us with! Afterward, we scurried off to bed because we would be leaving early in the morning to travel north . . .

We left our house around 7:30 a.m. on Saturday morning headed northeast. We had packed our minivan to the gills as you can tell from this photo. (Can you tell who’s faking in this picture? J)

A sign we saw during one of our stops. J

After driving for about 12 hours, we finally reached our hotel in Illinois. We unpacked our overnight things and then went out to a Mexican restaurant for dinner.

The next morning we left again at 7:30 a.m. so that we could arrive in Pennsylvania in time for dinner with our cousins from Florida. It was EXTREMELY cold when we left in the morning! We had to wait for a good 10 minutes for the ice to clear on our windows.

Getting ready to pull out. Only 10 more hours and we’ll be with our family!

To be continued . . .