Surprise from Santa

Well, we got the biggest surprise from Santa. I was feeling very "low", moody, sorry for myself, wanting to be home for Christmas, sad......you know the story. Christmas Eve we had been out buzzing around and had planned on going to see Princess Frog leaving at 4:20. About 3:40 we got a call from David (#6 child) saying they wanted to Skype us before they ate dinner. Told them we were planning on leaving at 4:20. Said they would hurry......at 4:30 Dick says we need to leave but I thought we needed to wait for Dave. A few minutes later there's a knock on our door, which is VERY unusual!!! Dick answers the door and tells me to come quick. Outside the door is a huge Christmas bag......but it's moving and giggling!! And down the hall is David and Kristin with their video camera!!!! Wellll, Dave and family live outside of Chicago!!!!! And there were five kids (ages 9 down to 16 months)wrapped in that Christmas bag!!! Not much brings me to tears (except more things do as I get older) but this did!!! They decided as a family to drive 1000 or so miles to come and have Christmas with us!!!! Way to mess up our "plans" for the holiday---HA HA HA HA!!!!!



















Knowing that everything closed by 6 pm we made a quick trip to the store, put our filet mingon(gift from our daughter) back in the fridge, went to Chili's for dinner (that was a little different for Christmas Eve)and checked into their hotel. Christmas in the Hampton Inn is definately something to remember. But their big room was bigger than our apartment and they had beds for everyone.

Here's Kristin and Emma wrapping in the hall of Hampton Inn












Dave decorating their room







Dave with the 12th day of Christmas gift


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Joseph talking to the innkeeper..













Kristin has a hard time controlling her laughter while filming the manger scene.





And here's all the kids in their Christmas jammies waiting for Santa






Thanks to Scott's family (#1 son)we had a huge Honeybaked Ham which worked perfect for Christmas dinner!!! So we had a very fun time with them thru today (Sunday) when they left for home. They're in Palmyra tonight and home tomorrow night.

What a wonderful thing they did......very much the gift of themselves to us!!!

Tonight we skyped Rick and family in Arizona and Mindy had all the Utah and Vegas families at her house so we saw everyone there. And we skyped Dan and Kim on Christmas Eve!!!! What a wonderful family we have!!! And in 9 weeks we will be on the road to seeing all of them again!!!

UPDATE: it's Monday night and Dave just called.....as they left Palmyra this morn it started snowing and kept up all day....driving the interstate at 35 mph with horrific winds. So they are staying in Erie, PA tonight hoping the snow lets up and they can get home tomorrow!!!! Bummer!!! Winter in New England and Great Lakes region.

Dave's kids are not allowed to jump on beds at home...BUT, they make exceptions in hotels (don't let that secret out)..so the kids had a great jump-a-thon.























Santa certainly came to he Hampton Inn!!















But there's nothing in the world like a big chocolate Santa for breakfast on Christmas morning......













The game Elefun......an elephant blows paper butterflies up his trunk and you have to catch them in a net.....and Kristin's socks









No matter where we are or who we're with, there's always eating. One of the traditions in Kristin's family is broiled bacon wrapped pineapple and we always have cinnamon rolls. So I fixed it and took it all to the hotel.












This was a first!!! Swimming on Christmas night....not exactly a tradition but fun nonetheless....




On Saturday, after playing with all the new toys, we decided to go to one of the upscale malls around......one of Kristin's presents was new boots and she wanted to see what our stores had. Well, who in the world goes to a mall the day after Christmas???? About did me in....hour and a half to find a parking spot....15 minutes with no movement in the parking lines. Everyone else went into the mall while I try to get my heart rate back to normal and not hate every automobile I could see........anyway, Kristin did get her boots while we played in the kids zone and then we hit Friendlys for dinner.






























What a marvelous time we had and I even got the computer to download these pictures!!

Here's to one of the most memorable Christmas' we've ever had!!!