Meeting up in Indiana

Thomas and Natalie and the girls went to Kentucky to be with Natalie's family for Christmas and Jennifer and Shawn and their kids went to Chicago to be with Shawn's family and Nik went to spend Christmas with his family so for the first time ever it was just Charlie and Michele and their kids for Christmas Eve. We decided to go out to eat since there was just us. Surprisingly (?) we had very few choices of restaurants open. We ended up at Bull on the Beach and it was great.

Then we went over to our church for mass

with Charlie and family, a perfect evening.

Our sweetie with an attitude.

Meanwhile Santa showed up in Kentucky

He left a stocking in Maryland for Ginger and Thor and I think they appreciated it

Didn't Santa realize they had to get all those toys back to Maryland?

 Meanwhile in Chicago

Lucky enough to find a Dairy Queen open on Christmas day

So now is where it gets a bit tricky.

Tom and I left Christmas morning to go to French Lick Indiana where we had rented a cabin in the mountains and where Jennifer and Shawn would meet us after leaving Chicago and where we would be close enough to Natalie's family in Kentucky to visit with them too.

Ella has been growing like a weed since she has been taking her Mito Cocktail
but John Robert is still getting close to catching up with her.
She is FOUR years older than him

Thomas and Ella came over to spend the first night with us

We didn't do much because everyone was so tired from all the driving but that didn't matter.

Thomas made this scarf for his sister by knitting with his hands so of course he had to show everyone how it was done.

 

We drove over to Ft. Knox to see how much of it we remembered from the 6 years we lived there
 and of course we had to have lunch at the Elizabethtown Steak and Shake

 

Meanwhile Ella and Sami's cousins from another part of Texas showed up

They are 6 months apart

Jennifer even made Natalie's nieces matching nighties

I love you Aunt Nenni!

Then we all met up in the only place that had snow (artificial, but it works) to do some tubing

In case you were wondering NO Pops did NOT go tubing

Our pregnant mommy didn't go tubing either but
she was very helpful getting every one's pass pinned on.

Sami wasn't so sure but Uncle Al got her to go down.
She wasn't a fan

Who is that young man standing next to me!?
I can't be old enough to have a grandson this big.
That coat lasted 2 trips down and then it came off and
I spend the rest of the morning in my hoodie and jeans.

Not quite sure about Thomas's fashion choices but hey, it works

I'd like to say I decided to just sit down on the cold ground but nope
I fell down a few times

Here we go Sami, it's going to be FUN

She LOVED it but she didn't have to drag that gee golly tube back up the hill

Shawn was kept busy with his two loving it even though he had a nasty cold.
Such a good daddy.

playing in the rocks and we paid $25 each to go tubing

What were we thinking?

It was the only snow they played in all week

snow angels

Cousins

"Pull me, Uncle Tommy"

cousins

Thanks Alex, for taking these great action shots

Then we all came back to our cabin for pizza and drinks

With Natalie's parents, 2 brothers and 2 nieces

we totaled 10 adults and 6 kids

It was tight but we made room

blowing out the pretend candle

pretty ring

Then I went outside with the kids since the weather was so mild

They spied this broken piece of machinery and decided that
 Santa must have crashed his sleigh here and had to leave it.

I should have seen it coming,

maybe I did but just didn't care

They got a bit wet in the stream

The two big girls were trying to build a doll house and they decorated it with this

Then John Robert had to go get a bag to collect the trash that was in the stream

Then some hot chocolate and jammies and then the hot tub

"smile Grams"
There's more to come
Water Slides and
a another dinner for 16