Christmas in Charlotte

This whole holiday season has been a total whirlwind! Once we decided we were going back to school and moving to Charlotte, it was go, go, go! We had already bought our tickets back in October for Christmas in North Carolina, so we decided to keep plans as they were.

We flew out on the 18th. We were so excited because we had a layover in Utah where we met up with Jared, Shannon and their new little guy Colton. They were on the same flight with us out to Charlotte. Unfortunately, we didn't get to sit by each other, but we did see each other occasionally as we walked our children up and down the aisle on the 3.5 hour flight. Luckily, both Nixon and Colton did great! We landed, got our bags, and Ethan's parents came and picked all of us. We were all exhausted and went to bed pretty quickly.

Throughout the week, we played multiple games of Milles Bourne, we had great food, and enjoyed spending time together and took lots of pictures of the four new boys. Getting pictures of them was a bit like herding sheep. No one looking...

Twenty clicks later..

It was so fun to see Ethan and his brother be dads together and to hear how their conversations have changed.. but only slightly.

 Shannon and I with our boys

 Nixon and Colton

Unfortunately the weather was a little miserable for the first part of the trip, so we spent a lot of time inside. And what do you do when you're cooped up? You get creative. Ethan's dad had some kind of taser that everyone decided would be a fun toy to use on each other. I have video of most of them, but here are just some shots from each. Ethan was first.

 Dwayne

Eric

We were also able to get a family picture done. It had been pouring all day, but it had let up a little bit. There were 12 adults and 6 kids and we took about 20 minutes. With all of those odds against us, the picture actually turned out great!

On Christmas Eve, we gathered as a family in the living room. Ethan's dad, Dwayne, read through the Christmas story. After he read a passage, we would sing a song that went along with the verses he read. What was even more sweet, was having the two oldest grandsons put up the Nativity while the story was being read. There was an excitement in the air that can only come from the eagerness of little children excited for Santa. The kids all got put to bed, and the Thomas house got ready for Christmas!

We woke up Christmas morning and Santa had come! With all of the expenses that were coming with us moving, we decided to do a small Christmas. We did stockings for each other and then had a gift for Nixon. It was small, but it wasn't all that bad either.

Nixon's first Christmas!

We got everything ready for dinner, and had a pretty good spread. One of the traditions of Ethan's family is to go around the table and say what our gift to Christ is for the year, and then we light our candle. Ethan and I had similar goals to work on strengthening our relationship, so we make sure when all our kids are grown and gone, we don't look at each other and say, "Who are you?"

A couple days after Christmas, some of the girls went and saw "Into The Woods" which I loved! Meryl Streep was amazing and like Cam from Modern Family said, "Meryl Streep could play Batman and be the right choice. She's perfection."

We finished out the week with a fish fry and shooting a potato gun we joked that this was the most redneck Christmas. I shot the potato gun, but I didn't realize it would kick like a 12 gauge shotgun. I had a decent grip, but the kick made the gun fly back and drill me in the hip bone. It was bruised for a week!

It was a long but awesome trip, and it's only a matter of time before we're back out there to start school.