White Christmas

This year we had a wonderful surprise...our first white Christmas in 18 years!


What a beautiful blessing to wake up with the excitement of opening presents and snow falling out side (okay- it was still dark, but still...)

It has become a tradition to spent the night with Grandma and Grandpa Myers Christmas eve for the last several years. This year we had planned to stay at home and join them on Christmas day in the late morning but our kids would't hear anything about that. Thrilled to continue our tradition we packed up and moved out.

We spent Christmas eve eating, laughing, and visiting with Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Tomash.


Grandma surprised us all with a Christmas eve gift: Pajamas! She even got all of the grown up women matching PJ's. What fun!

Christmas morning came more then once through out the night. Emma woke up at least twice in the middle of the night asking if it was time to get up and open gifts. We finally allowed them out of bed at about 5:45 am. Santa had filled all the stockings to the brim and they excitedly and quickly opened them up.

We enjoyed opening our first round of gifts right away then ate some wonderful cinnamon rolls that grandpa and the kids made for us. The kids loved playing with their toys for a few hours and we loved watching and playing with them.

Then it was off to the snow!!! Yes, it was cold but how could we miss the opportunity to make a 6 foot snowman?!

After getting cold in the snow we warmed up by decorating our Happy Birthday Jesus cake and gingerbread houses.

As soon as Aunt Janelle got off work we surprised our little ones with a second round of gifts. Austin could hardly contain his excitement and Emma said "You joked us!"

Our day was filled with family, joy, excitement, activity, gifts, snow and food. We couldn't ask for a better Christmas.

We are home and we have snow!

After a long flight I am so happy to say that we are finally home. The first thing that we did when we woke up...play in the snow! We jumped the fence (shhhh, don't tell) and enjoyed the rolling hills on the golf course with our sleds.

Christmas in Virgina

For the first time in over 4 year, I was able to spend a Christmas with my brother. Even more fun was having our wives together and our kids meeting for the first time. At times chaotic, but mostly pure joy as the kids played. We had a small gift exchange between the kids. It was awesome to see their expressions. We had a great time.

The shipyard

The kids loved visiting Uncle Billy's work. They were amazed with the big ships, the cool planes and the awesome helicopters.

Our historical visit

Today was our trip down American History Lane. After rounding up the kids, feeding them, getting dress and loading up into two cars, we drove roughly 45 minutes to Jamestown and Williamsburg.

Our pilgrimage started at Jamestown, where if don't know, was the start of our fine nation! After navigating the parking lot, exploring treacherous landscapes, we finally made it to our destination...the ticket counter.

Onward now to our settlement. Now, being that they were new (to us!), we proceeded to explore each of the huts, learned how to crush corn for flour and cook over a fire. This was an exciting time to teach our kids what life was like when the Pilgrims settled and had to start fresh.

Once we had or fill of the huts, we set off toward the ships. The kids had a great time exploring the ship, especially when the guide was teaching the kids about the cannon. Austin was very interested in what could be fired out of cannon.

To cap of Jamestown, we went into a mock village with buildings that represented that time. On stage was a village man speaking about the history of the Musket and demonstrating how to load and fire it. Ok, so we all know about Austin and wanting to be a policeman, he was so fixed on what was happening and what it sounded like when the gun was fired; priceless.

After a few bites of home-grown food (cheese burgers), our journey took us to Williamsburg. The day was growing long and the kids were starting to wear. Luckily it was the season of celebrating. There was people all over, walking around, singing and eating. As we made it into the main square, there was a one man play acting out the Ebeneser Scrooge, all in 15 minutes. Boy, were all the kids in awe. When was the last time you had five kids under the age of 7 all sit still for 15 minutes....never, so we were blessed with sitting kids and laughs.

After the play, we hiked on over to the working settlement of Williamsburg. We were able to see carriages, shops and most of all, we got to lock the kids up in shackles. We wish we had more time in Williamsburg as there is so much to see and do; maybe next trip. All in all, we had a great day with the kids exploring what was once the new frontier.