Christmas Surprise

The plan for this Christmas was to do Christmas at home and then just the kids and I would head to my parents' house for New Years week. All of my siblings were going to be there then except for my sister Sarah, who wasn't going to be coming to Pittsburgh this year. Well about 3 weeks before Christmas she had a last minute chance of plans and decided to head home after all, but her and her family were going to have to leave on Christmas Day. That meant every one of my siblings would be together for Christmas except me. At first I said I couldn't change my plans because John had to work the days leading up to Christmas and I didn't want to ditch him and I didn't want to deal with transporting Christmas presents to and from Pittsburgh. Well after about a week of thinking about it, I realized that I would be devastated knowing that everyone was there and I was alone in Michigan with no extended family. I mean one of the whole perks of moving to Michigan was supposed to be being able to see my family more often and we haven't all been together for Christmas in 7 years!

So we decided that I would leave the Sunday before Christmas with the kids and then John would drive down on Wednesday, Christmas Eve, to meet us. Once we decided that, we thought we would surprise the kids and have half of the Christmas presents show up on the Saturday before we left. We just told them that Santa had heard we were traveling to Pittsburgh and wouldn't have room for all the gifts. Of course they didn't mind! Here is a pick of King opening his Green Yoshi. Somehow he got really hooked on Yoshi over Thanksgiving and has been begging for one ever since. Thank goodness for ebay for these random gift requests. Oh and I love the look on Netta's face in the background. 

Another new obsession of actually all the kids is Homestar Runner. I loved it during college and they have started making new little videos again and my kids are hooked. EZ got this cd of all of Strong Bad's songs. It's pretty awesome.

Before we left town, Netta brought home this lovely picture from school. We don't actually have an elf on the shelf, but if we decide to get one he better not mess around with her.

When I decided to change my Christmas plans I thought it would be so fun to just surprise everyone and show up. I really wanted to tell keep it a complete surprise and let no one know, but then I realized I should let my mom know so she could plan for us to be at the house, which was jam packed. I am glad I told her, because then she let us know that everyone would be at Meghan's house celebrating her birthday on Sunday night, which was the perfect way to surprise everyone at once. I didn't know this till after the fact, but I after I texted my mom and told her that we were about to pull up to the house, she started telling everyone that maybe Santa would bring a special surprise to the party. This really confused my dad, but then I snuck up to the window and held up Conrad's face to it and started knocking and really surprised/scared everyone. I wish I could have gotten pictures, but my hands were a bit full. People laughed, people cried and it was all around awesome. 

I am extra glad we decided to go to my parents early, because John ended up working basically non-stop while we were gone. We thought they were going to be really laid back days with not much to do, but he was working his tail off to finish the deal he started in Italy. The poor guy worked all day Christmas Eve and then literally drove through a snow storm to be with us, so you can excuse his slightly tired face Christmas morning.

In my post about Thanksgiving I mentioned Netta's somewhat scary stuffed dolphin from the thrift store. Ever since she got it she has been saying that he needs a friend, so when Sarah asked her what she wanted for Christmas she said a stuffed dolphin. I did not have high hopes that Sarah would be able to pull it off, but she did! Netta couldn't have been happier.

Poor John was only able to stay for 3 days before heading back to Michigan. Luckily, my parents watched the kids for us so we could go out for a little lunch date and of course we went to Primanti's. There were 14 extra people at my parents' house so it was nice to get away for a little bit

I trip to the Pittsburgh Zoo is always a must and we made the most of the relatively mild winter weather. I thought we would get a white Christmas, but alas there was no snow in Michigan or Pittsburgh. I don't actually want a lot of snow, but come on, a white Christmas was supposed to be a perk of moving here. Anyway, we had a blast with the cousins at the zoo. Conrad seemed to really bond with my brother Ben. He lives in Seattle and we haven't seen him in 2 years, so it was big a deal that he was there. 

Despite the lack of snow, EZ was determined to go sledding and he decided to pull a National Lampoon Christmas move and spray non-stick cooking spray on the bottom of the sleds to make them slide down the grass. They didn't move very fast, but that didn't stop the kids from having fun.

It was a bit of a challenge to change our Christmas plans last minute, but I am so glad I did. I may have cried when I had to get in the car and drive home. I love having all of my family together!