Christmas Eve

Well today is Christmas Eve, its actually just an hour away from being Christmas. Its so hard to believe that Christmas is almost here and in 24 hours, it will almost be over. It just goes by faster and faster each year. I'm actually just getting in the mood to celebrate the season, and, well, its almost over. I've been so tired and busy this year, it has made it more work than pleasure, which bums me out a little. I still have enjoyed it, but not to the extent I normally do.

We were planning on leaving for Alabama on Saturday, to celebrate Christmas with Ryan's family, however, after much thought, we have decided it would be best to wait to make a trip down there at this time. We will miss seeing his family right now, but just think it would be a more enjoyable trip when Paxton is a little older, and we aren't so tired all the time. With it being a 12 hour drive, we are just not up to it right now.

Today we took a day trip to Jefferson City to see my family. It was a lot of fun, even though it was a quick trip. We were worried about this big snow storm that is to hit tonight, so we didn't get to visit as long as would have liked to. My parents and our family, all piled in our van and headed up there. We first stopped off at my mom's parents house and got to see my grandparents and they got to meet Paxton for the first time. It had been so long since they saw Adriana, it was nice for them to see her again too. We enjoyed seeing them and Adriana enjoyed playing games with Grandpa. Here are some pictures from our visit with them.

Grandma Veltrop with her great grand babies.

Grandma and Grandpa Veltrop

4 Generations

After visiting with them for a little while, we went over to my great aunt Dee's house for a mini Christmas celebration with my Dad's side of the family. We were so bummed out that my aunt Leasa and her family couldn't make it today, due to the weather. We were looking forward to all being together, since we don't get to see them but once a year or so. Anyway, it was us, Dee, my Grandma and brother that were there. It was a lot of fun to see all of them again and visit.

Its sad that we don't get to see family as much as we would like to, but days like this are nice to be reminded how lucky we are to have such a loving extended family.

Here are pictures from Dee's house today.

Adriana and her new Ariel Dress.

She loved the dress so much, she

wore it all the way home.

Dee and Adriana

Grandma Bowen and Adriana

Uncle Chris and Adriana

(She was LOVING the chance to take pictures

with everyone, in case you couldn't notice)

Daddy and Adriana

While we were gone today, Mrs. Claus came by and left Adriana a present under the tree. It was a new pair of PJ's and she loved them! (This is a new tradition I want to start, where Mrs. Claus brings new PJ's on Christmas Eve. I stole this idea from my friend Susan's family). Here is Adriana in her new Ballerina PJ's. She loved them.

The Pj's that Mrs. Claus delivered.

We would like to wish everyone and their families a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year.

P.S. Its snowing outside, so this means a WHITE CHRISTMAS! This is the first white Christmas for Ryan, so he is very excited. My parents bought him a sled for his birthday last week, so hopefully we will get enough that he can get out there and use it.