Christmas 2016

I don’t have many words about Christmas Day…but I do have pictures that I want on this blog so I can remember this day forever!  Christmas is a sad time…stirs up memories and emotions that are easily setted throughout the year. Come Christmas morning they flood my mind and make me miss the old days.

But we woke up to two VERY excited kids! It was cute to hear them knock on Nana and Granda’s door and hear them say “wake up…Santa came!”  It was the first Christmas in my parents new retirement home and we were waking up together as a family…sounds like a nice idea right?!?

Being away from home for Christmas is tough!! And we kept telling the kids how we HOPED that Santa knew we were in Ireland. Thankfully he found us!! And Nana got Ella this old fashioned pram…I think she was more excited about it than Ella was! haha  Maggie slept the whole way through the present opening…but when she woke Nana thought she should be the first baby to try out the babydoll pram (Ella thought it was very funny!)

After presents and breakfast/lunch we all showered up and waited for my Uncle Gerald, Aunt Kim and cousin Gerald to come over for dinner. It was really nice to see that side of the family…I remember the days when they’d come to our house in Fontana for Christmas dinner. We’d host the Gallagher side and it would be about 25 people in my parents tiny house.  Those were the good ol’ days.

Since my Mom’s family is so large we decided that everyone would do their own thing for dinner and then come togeher for dessert at my Aunt Ann’s house.  It was so nice to be able to see all the kids together and playing. Adults chatting and having a few drinks (except for this breastfeeding mother!) haha

And then the dancing started…little bit of “whip and nae nae!”

And then we called it a night. Home by 9:30 and kids crashed! 
Kinda weird that this will be our last “baby’s first christmas”

Another Christmas came and went. The anticipation of it and then in a blink of the eye the day is over. All the prepping and planning…done!  Luckily we didn’t have to go through the post-christmas blues…we still had 2 weeks left of our time in Ireland.