Dinosaurs and Baby Dolls

All the Schus in Schuville had a wonderful Christmas this year. We enjoyed the Christmas Eve service at our church and then celebrated with our new church friends at one of the member's homes until it was time to come home and get the kids ready for bed. It was hard though to be away from family. We were very sorry to miss the Christmas Eve tree lighting in Williamsburg where Jon's mom gave a speech in front of a very large crowd. The rest of the family got to sit on stage at the event, but we were 1000 miles away keeping her in our thoughts and prayers. It was hard to think about my family getting together in Virginia Beach for Callie's first Christmas and we weren't able to be there. I get sad thinking about how Brighton has not even spent a Christmas with her grandparents yet, and it has probably been too long for Will to remember the last Christmas he was around either set of grandparents. But I can't dwell on these things too long before I remember how truly blessed we are. For the last two Christmases here in Louisiana, we've been able to do something different on Christmas Eve--meeting new people and having new experiences. And we've been able to spend a very peaceful Christmas as a family of four in our home together. We stay in our pjs most of the day, open presents, eat food that we work together to prepare and, best of all, take Christmas naps!!! This year we spent a long time opening presents since we had them from two sets of Grandparents and three sets of Aunts and Uncles on top of the presents Jon and I bought for the kids.We had to eventually get Brighton out of bed because Will had been up for a while waiting to open his presents. We munched on strawberrry bread and took our time with each present since both children wanted to get all of the presents out of their boxes. It was a long morning that ended with a pancake feast courtesy of Daddy and Will. The kids settled in for an exhausted nap while Jon and I finished our mimosas and watched Holiday Inn...trying not to look at the explosion of wrapping paper and toys all around us. We eventually took our Christmas nap, and when everyone woke up, we started on a massive clean up! We played for the rest of the evening and Jon and I worked together on our Christmas meal: Bleu Cheese and Fig stuffed Pork Tenderloin. It was truly a Schuville-worthy roast beast! We spent the rest of the weekend shopping with our gift cards and playing with all of the new toys! It was a great Christmas weekend, and we couldn't ask for more. Thank you, Nana, Papa, Grandma, Granddad, Aunt Wendy, Uncle Geoff, Brady, Zachary, Uncle Eric, Aunt V, Jake, Sophia, Aunnie, Uncle Matt, and Callie for all of our presents! We hope you all had as merry of a Christmas as we did down here in the deep South. Enjoy the pictures, and hopefully I'll be able to send some video if I can figure out how to shorten it!!!!