Christmas with the Phillips

 I know it is 2011, but I wanted to update and share some pictures of our 2010 Christmas vacation.

Joel finished his rotation on Christmas Eve.  We weren't sure he would have the day off or not, so we had decided long ago that we were going to stay in Detroit that night and drive to the west side of the state.  It was wonderful.  Joel did have the Christmas Eve off and it was so nice to have him at home.  We had a relaxing day.  We had braved Meijer the night before to get steaks and some other groceries.  So during the day I started prepping for the traditional steak dinner.  Growing up, my family would always open gifts on Christmas eve and then have a wonderful steak dinner.  I want to carry at least the steak dinner tradition.  Joel grew up opening gifts on Christmas morning, so that is when we opened our little family's gifts.  Okay, back to Christmas Eve.  We also had time to pack the car for our little road trip that day.  Kyper got an early dinner and then we got to go to our own church for a Christmas Eve service.  It was so good.  We don't typically get to go to Holiday services at our own church since we are often visiting our family.  DCF had a beautiful candle-light service.  After, church we put Kyper down and then had our steak dinner.  One of these years, Kyper will join us for dinner, but it was way past his bedtime.

Steak Dinner

Stockings are stuffed

Presents were waiting to be opened.

You want to know one of my favorite gifts this year...it was being able to wake up in our own bed and home on Christmas morning.  This is the first time for 6 years that that has occurred.  It was so relaxing.  We took it easy in the morning.  Although, it was early--Kyper decided to wake up a little after 6; he must have known it was a different type of day.  We opened our stockings, had sticky buns, and then opened our gifts.  Kyper wasn't really that interested in opening gifts.  Once he saw there were toys in the boxes, he wanted to play with those.  After opening presents, we did some last minute packing and headed to the west side.

Kyper had fun opening his stocking.

A Wooden Star Ornament that Joel craved a picture in and Kyper's name on.

He may not have gotten into the tearing of wrapping paper, but he was excited about a new toy.

I got Joel the t-shirt he wanted.  It is of the molecule that is found in chili peppers.

It was great to travel on Christmas morning.  Light traffic and this year the weather was beautiful.  I really think we are going to have to do the same thing in years to come.

We made it in time to stop and drop some things off at my parents and then headed to my old school for the extended Koning family party.  After that party, we headed to Joel's parents.  They were hosting the extended Phillips family, which was nice since we didn't have to travel much further to another party and we were able to put Kyper down for a nap.  We ended the evening at doing the immediate Phillips family.  It was fun.  We sorely missed JP and Katie though.  But, I guess Texas gets them some years too.

We were staying the first part of the week at my parents, which made Sunday really relaxing.  We didn't go anywhere except church with my parents.  After church, my mom and dad hosted the immediate Koning family party.  It was great. It went really smoothly.  The kids were really good about taking turns--I can tell they are getting older and lets face it Kyper just didn't care yet to make it chaotic.  (He'll probably be the really impatient one next year.)  We basically partied all day at my parents.  It was good to spend some quality time with my siblings and in-laws.  We also played a great game of hand and foot with my grandma.  Man, she is a card shark!

Joel had the rest of the week off, so we were able to spend lots of quality time with family and friends.  Here are some of the highlights:

1. Kyper and I had play-dates with Renee and Abby and Elizabeth and Mady during the week.  
2. Kyper got another haircut--this kid's hair grows fast.  This was is fourth hair cut in his lifetime of 17 months.  He did a great job sitting (compared to the last three times), so I told Elizabeth to cut it really short.  I love having friends with kids Kyper's age that also cut hair--they totally understand how hard it is to hold kids and we can just take our time on haircuts if we incorporate it into a playdate. :)
3. Joel hit the beach 3 times--one of them with Kyper. 

It was really warm...or maybe it wasn't?  Who is wearing the right type of cloths for the beach in Dec.?

  4.  Playing cards with my mom and other family and friends.  I had some really good games and some really bad ones.

Playing Hand and Foot with Mel and Steph.  I love these girls.

Post to come--New Year's Eve and Day celebrations.