The Holmes Family: Christmas

Some of you may be thinking, "WOW! The Holmes family didn't do much between Thanksgiving and Christmas!" But we actually celebrated Christmas (for the 1st time) the day after Thanksgiving with Mimi and PawPaw! It was a wonderful day and I couldn't envision a more relaxing, enjoyable day to spend with family.

We began our early Christmas by spending a couple of hours at the mall. We first went to P.F. Chang's (Brad's absolute favorite) for lunch and then the girls and Mimi and PawPaw went on the train trip around the mall.Only when the grandparents are in town do the girls get spoiled so profusely.

I love how Faith is waving her hand like a princess. :-) Thanks Mimi and PawPaw for a delicious lunch and shopping time for Brad and me while you entertained the girls.

Then we came home to celebrate Christmas with Mimi and PawPaw, but they opened only one gift while Anna took a nap.

Hooray!!! The girls immediately recognized the Balance Bike as something their friend Madeline had and were very excited to try it out!

Daddy and PawPaw assembled the bike...

and then the girls went outside to take it for a test run (in Faith's fancy Christmas dress and all)!

Then we came back inside to finish trimming the tree.

I wasn't sure whose turn it was to put the star on top of the tree, but the girls had apparently already had this discussion and had concluded it was Jillian's year, because when asked, they both quickly agreed Jillian was up. :-)

Jillian had a little help of course, in the height department.

Then it was time for more opening of Christmas presents!!! Mimi got all three of the girls matching shirts...so cute! They also got a new Richard Scarry Busy Town game, kits to make their own kaleidoscopes (they love crafts), and some Berenstein bear books!!!

Anna helped her Mommy and Daddy open their new books, chocolate, cards, and checks for something special at a later time. In addition, Brad received a new sweater and I was given my favorite gift of all....

A beautiful new sterling silver charm bracelet with three girl silhouettes. Each of the silhouettes is engraved with one of my girls names and birthdate! It is so special to me and I have been wearing it all the time. Thank you Mimi and PawPaw for my beautiful, thoughtful gift. It means so much to me.

Anna got a pretty new dress.

She also got a beloved Calin Corolle doll of her own (both of her big sisters received one from Mimi and PawPaw when they were a one-year old too).

After gift-opening, it was time to make a gingerbread house! Anna and PawPaw got really excited about making it!

It was a really cool kit that made it super easy to assemble the house. Nonetheless, the icing became a little tricky to handle. Luckily, we had 10 hands to help hold pieces in place.

The house was successfully assembled. Then it was time to decorate.

The hardy construction specialists! I think Faith may have been flexing her muscles in this photo!

.... coming together ....

... team work everyone (Anna has joined back in, realizing there is candy to be had) ...

Ta Da!!! Gorgeous!!

We celebrated Christmas with a super-special treat: Papa John's Pizza and salad (on our wonderful Christmas china - thanks Brad for the 2010 Christmas gift!)

Then we cracked open the new game from Mimi and PawPaw. It was super fun. (Anna is learning what 'say cheese' means).

Everyone hard at work finding objects in the puzzle. This is a great game because it is a co-operative game. Either everyone wins, or everyone loses (to the pigs who eat all your picnic food).

The next day was their day to return to Texas, our time with them went far too quickly! But thankfully, they booked a late-afternoon flight, so we had time for one more special treat - some of the best Texas BBQ outside (and possibly inside) Texas, right here in downtown DC: Hill Country BBQ.

We decided to park at a garage 2 blocks away, in fear of not finding anything closer. They didn't advertise the price on the street, which is a bad sign. Because once you past the point of no return, you discover they charge $14 for the first hour!! NOT COOL!!!

Then, to rub SALT in our wounds (Brad in particular since he was driving and had picked the garage), we found an empty street spot RIGHT OUTSIDE THE FRONT DOOR of the BBQ joint. That hurts folks.

We found a table inside, and got set up. And then, we never took any photos of the AMAZING BBQ sandwiches and jalapeno/cheese sausage, because it was too yummy to stop eating. What's more, they had amazing BBQ chicken for the girls, fantastic sides like white shoepeg corn pudding, german potatoes and much more.