P'Ville Christmas

This year we spent Christmas at my parents in Northern California - we went for a full week so Claire and Miles got some good May and Papa time. I have a ton of pictures from the visit, so I will try to self-edit and not post a ton of them... well, maybe I will. It is a beautiful area and I forgot how much I miss the trees and mountains until I am back there.

We visited Apple Hill, an area filled with apple orchards and wineries, to get caramel, apple doughnuts and fritters, and just some time to walk around and feed the ducks.

My brother Kenny came up for a few days and played with Claire and Miles - he is really good with kids and is the fun uncle because he'll play with them when the rest of us are tired. :)

We also got to see my sister Becky and her family, and my brother Erick who lives about 45 minutes away from my parents. We had a house full of toddlers and babies - each of us have had a baby within the past 4+ months - in August, September and November. Claire tested our patience big time - I have never seen her be such a stinker... We felt like we were putting her in time out constantly and it wasn't very fun to be a parent sometimes. At one point Matt was heard saying, "Christmas spirit, where are you?" over and over again. Yeah, it was bad. I hope my siblings will let us come and visit again someday. :) But kids are forgiving, and they kept playing together. At one point Claire had gone down for her nap early after hitting McKinley with a wooden piece from a rocking horse, and 30 minutes later Kinster came to tell me that Claire Bear was sorry and could come back to play.

But the spirit did come, when we got to bless Becky's baby Gabriel at my parent's house on Christmas day. We read the story of Christ's birth from the Bible, and then my dad gave Gabe a blessing. It was a really special moment and I am so glad they decided to have the blessing at the house so we could all be there. Matt said Gabe just looked up at my dad with the sweetest look on his face the whole time. Wonder what those little guys are thinking ...

My grandpa Johnson came up for the blessing, and we took a quick picture with all the adults together.

Another fun tradition that my sister brought back this year is the Christmas pinata - now I know that seems kind of weird, but we always had a pinata on Christmas Eve at my Grandma Dennis' house so we thought the next generation should get introduced to it as well. The other fun part was that my dad was outside practicing his bagpipe playing Christmas music that I'm sure neighbors a mile away could here, while we were whacking the pinata... kind of a collision of cultures going on at the Johnson's.