Part Two: STL

Here are a bunch of random pictures from the STL portion of our Christmas adventures. I had to start with this one because it is SO cute! We spent a couple of days in St. Louis visiting family and friends before the official festivities began. We got to go to lunch with Dane's grandparents and his cousin. We also stopped by my Uncle Larry and Aunt Mickey's house to see the extensive model train set-up that my uncle has. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures from their house, which is too bad, because they had a great time.  I also got to see my friend Katie and her husband and step-daughter. It was a lot of shuttling the kids around, but they were troopers.

The day after we got into town, Tom and his fiance, Jen, got to my parents house and then Terry and Andrea. The boys were excited to see their aunts and uncles. It is rare that the Weber siblings are all under one roof, so it was a ton of fun. My mom bought a new version of Cranium and it was hilarious. All I can say is that my little brother portrays Brooke Shields like nobody's business! 

We celebrated our family Christmas on Christmas Eve with way too many presents and a delicious famous breakfast compliments of Chef dad. Then we headed to my Uncle John and Aunt Mary Alice's for the big Ryan gathering. The kids all had fun together and it was so nice to actually get to go to a family function! Plus, the rates we got at Hotel Weber were reasonable given the sweet accommodations.

 

Sibling Love

Tom and Jen

Terry and Andrea

The Sisters

The Family Picture

Sadly, this was the best of all of my attempts to get a picture of the boys

Gram and Gavin

True Joy (for the Thomas paper)

The Webers

The Ryan Clan (Yeah, I know)

Meredith and Gavin

Jen moonlights as a conductor

Gavin's new truck

All Aboard

Little Drummer Boy

Andrea won the award for best wrapping job

Presents!

Gavin's dog ears from his stocking

Liam digging in his stocking

Uncle Tommy and his Godson

Daddy and Liam

Chef Dad making Christmas breakfast of bacon, eggs and hashbrowns. (many chickens were forced to work overtime to supply the eggs for this meal)

Uncle Terry and Liam

Baby's first Christmas!

Early risers!

Still sleepy

No Papo! I do not want to come out from behind this table.

Lunch with Mamo and Dado

Gavin and Mamo

Gavin eating a loaf of bread

The Other Christmas Story: Part One

We didn't just celebrate Christmas this year, we celebrated Christmas four times. Yes, four times. I was actually off for the holiday. That makes two years in a row (keep in mind that last year I was about to birth Gavin, so we were stuck in KC at home preparing for G-day). I was really excited to get to go to St. Louis and Columbia and do it the way that I remember Christmas being like as a kid...lots of family, fun and general chaos. First we celebrated in KC. I wanted the boys to be excited about our little family Christmas and have it first to avoid overtired, overstimulated boys at the end of our trip. The Friday before Christmas we had dinner over at Lynn's house (Dane's aunt) just like we do most Fridays, but then we came home and opened presents. Liam was so excited it just got me pumped for what was to come. Here are some pictures of our little KC Christmas. Of course, these were the "mommy and daddy" presents, as it was too early for Santa.

Feeling Old (A blog shout out to Sheila)

On the first night that Dane, the boys and I were in STL for Xmas, we went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Immediately after being seated, we ran into the Jones family. This is what made me feel so old. This family used to live in my old neighborhood that I spent probably thousands of hours babysitting for! I haven't seen the kids in quite some time. Their oldest is in high school. WHAT?! I started babysitting their oldest (I think) when he was about 6 weeks old...maybe younger. I cannot believe that he is in high school. Their second son is the age that I was when I started babysitting the first. This blows my mind. Their youngest does not remember me because when she came around I had sadly moved on to college. I even went to Mexico with these people on vacation.  It was so great to see the kids and how grown up they are, but made me simultaneously realize that I am getting old. Sheila told me that she has been checking our blog, and therefore, this is a shout out to her. Thanks for making me realize how old I must be if I am now the one looking for the babysitter! It was great to see you, Jason and the kids! I wanted to squeeze those boys but didn't want to scare them off since so much time has passed. Hope that you had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

Why is it so hard to take a good picture of two children at the same time? This was the result of our photo shoot. I should have waited for Dane to be home to help me, but I got anxious and wanted to get it done. Below is a sampling of my quest for the perfect picture. I settled for less than perfect when I lost the crowd. You will just have to wait until they are sent to see the winner!

Trains at Union Station

Last weekend, we went down to Union Station with some friends of ours to see the model trains. Each holiday season, they build this huge display of model trains. Our friends have two kids as well. Aidan is about 4 months younger than Liam and they just had a baby girl over the summer, Maeve. It is nice to have friends with kids to hang out with. Liam and Aidan get along so well and they (of course) both  LOVE trains.

Liam and his friend Aidan looking at model trains down at Union Station. It was so cute they were so excited and walked around holding hands. There was so much to see, they just kept pointing things out to each other.

This was our attempt to take a nice family picture for our Christmas card...as you can see the boys were less than thrilled.

Gavin 11 months!

Dane telling Gavin about the trains

There was even a tree with Thomas ornaments all over it. The boys were jealous that it was not in their houses.

Christmas Decorations and First Snow

Liam entranced with a music box

Gavin seeing snow for the first time (that he remembers)

Pretty exciting stuff

My boys and the Christmas tree

Liam with Santa at the Luminary Walk