Wednesday, December 29, 2022
Our 2021 Christmas fun still wasn't quite over. Our next Christmas stop was in Martinsburg to see all of Daniel's family. We were really excited to see everyone - especially Laura and Jacob! We hadn't seen them since we went to the Homestead back in the summer of 2019! Charles, Alison, Everett and Griffin were also coming. Jacob is a senior in high school this year (where does the time go) and Everett is 10 and Griffin is 6. It is hard to believe how much everyone has grown! This year Laura also brought Molly - one of her 3 Whippets. She was very well-behaved and we really liked her.
We did Christmas gifts in two rounds - first with Laura, Jacob, Jane and Steve. Charles and family were delayed in leaving by a day because the boys had a fever and they needed to Covid test before coming. We gave Steve a new shirt, Lowe's gift cards and some Seinfeld memorabelia. He really liked the Seinfeld box. We gave Jane a sweatshirt, a Patagonia jacket and the Skylight frame (a digital frame that anyone can email photographs to). The frame seemed to be the hit of Christmas. Everyone loved sending pics (and even video) to it.
One of the best moments came when Emily started opening her gifts. The very first box she opened was completely empty! Nothing at all inside. It was hysterical!
Lucky for her, all of her other boxes, bags and stockings had gifts inside! She got fleece lined leggings, a new sweater, earrings, gift cards for Amazon and Lululemon and the universal gift card - CASH! She must have been very good this year.
Daniel must have been good too because he got new ski poles, a backpack, new socks and more. I got a pan to bake scones with some mixes, a cool Disney holiday book, a new phone/watch/airpod charging station and some gift cards too!
The next day Charles, Alison, Everett and Griffin arrived and all chaos broke lose! Just kidding, but wow those boys have energy. I think they had all their gifts open in 10 minutes!
The good part of the fast unwrapping was that there was lots of time for playing and the weather was unseasonably warm so that meant the kids were all headed out to run off some energy. They enjoyed a short run followed by 4 Square at the elementary school behind grandma's house.
Later that night, it was time to get out Everett's new game - Risk. Daniel, Charles, Emily, Everett and Griffin all attempted to play. It took a while to get the hang of it all, but Emily is confident that she would have won had the game been played to conclusion.
Everyone had a really nice Christmas and it was great to all get to be together...even if not all at the same time. I so wish we could get together more often. Maybe in 2022...
