Christmastime!

We had a great Christmas with family! My brother, Steve, and his family came to visit my parents and us for a week.  Due to COVID, we mostly stayed at our houses and didn't have many specific plans for the week, which was relaxing. We did take the kids outside when the weather was nice, and they jumped on the trampoline in our backyard at ton.

We enjoyed playing games, doing puzzles, and catching up on life.

We took the kids to one of our favorite playgrounds at Chesapeake City Park. Steve and Sheila's daughter, Meera, is 6 years old and their son, Rowan, is 2 years old. Our girls LOVED playing with them all week!

Some excited kids on Christmas morning! Rowan isn't really into posing for the camera - heh!

The girls got to decorate and eat snowman cupcakes

My mom treated Hallie and Meera to a makeover with real makeup!

So fancy!

One evening, we introduced the kids to "pop its" firecrackers. They're tiny pouches of powder that make a loud pop and bright spark when you throw them to the ground.

We also took them on a walk through our neighborhood to see some of the best Christmas decorations.

Just before they left to go back to Boston, we spent the day at Hunt Club Farm.

It's a very hands-on farm, and the girls loved getting to go inside the chicken coop and catch the hens.

Rowan enjoyed the goat pen much more than the chicken coop. He thought it was hilarious that the goats licked the feed right out of his hand.

They were cute, but mischievous. Every time the gate was opened, a few of them tried to make a run for it, and they were hard to corral back into their pen!

We all had a blast in the aviary, which was full of colorful parakeets. 

The farm sold birdseed on a stick, so you could attract the birds. This was the first time Hallie held onto her stick to let the birds eat the seed, without freaking out and throwing it. 

Rowan was still in the “freaking out about birds” stage, but he enjoyed them if they didn't move too much.

Each of the kids got a pony ride at the farm, too.

Rowan and his pony were too cute to handle!

There was a brand-new "tree walk" feature with climbing structures, bridges, rope walks, and slides built into the trees.

We miss Steve, Sheila, Meera, and Rowan and are so happy they were able to come to Virginia this Christmas!

We also celebrated Christmas with Dan's side of the family. They traditionally gather on Christmas Eve to eat Chinese food for dinner, and we drove to Williamsburg to join them that evening.

The Jester clan, along with the King family, who are longtime family friends. 

A few days after Christmas, we gathered again with the Jesters to exchange Christmas gifts. The kids distributed the gifts and made an enormous mess unwrapping their presents, while Dan's dad tried his best to collect all the trash before we were buried in it.

The girls *kind of* liked their gifts. Ha ha!

The Jester family at Christmastime. We were really missing Dan's sister, Robin, and her family. But we’re SO grateful that everyone was healthy this year. After last Christmas when Dan’s dad was in the hospital with COVID, we don’t take that blessing for granted!