Waking Up With the Whitmores: White Christmas

This year, we were able to wake up to a white Christmas in Connecticut. The whole Whitmore clan was together and it was so much fun. This year was definitely one to remember, being our first Christmas with Charlotte. Of course, she had no idea what was going on and it was the first with Meg's new husband, Adam.

We arrived at the house Christmas Eve at like 2:00 am and stayed up talking with Meg and Adam til 4! We were pretty tired the next morning, waking up pretty late. Christmas Eve was filled with good food (as was every day), trips to various stores and finally seeing everyone! There was no snow on the ground but when we woke up the next morning, there was a beautiful blanket of snow covering the ground. The morning started off early with the kids opening all their gifts. That makes Christmas so fun when there are little ones who still get overly excited about everything. Charlotte hit the jackpot from Grandma and Grandpa Whitmore (Rick and Eve) with practically a new wardrobe and library! Thank you again for all the wonderful gifts!! The rest of the day we relaxed, vegged, took a nap and had a wonderful dinner. After dinner, all the adults opened their gifts. Josh received some great things he had asked for in addition to a new wedding ring and Clipper tickets for Jan. 12 that I got him. I got some great things including a Willow Tree nativity, clothes, and gift cards (that are already spent)! We loved everything we got!

Grandkids stockings

Christmas Tree with presents for 13 people!

Meg and Adam surprised us all with their onesie pajamas...quite the sight!

Starting them young ;)

Tess as Mrs. Claus

Charlotte as an Elf (Thanks Aunt Meg!)

Kevin and Rachel helping the boys open their gifts

The Newlyweds with their nieces

Grandpa loved holding Charlotte as much as could

One day during the week, we went to look at the Sandy Hook memorials all over the town. What a sad thing that has happened to Newtown. The street leading to the school was blocked off but we went as far as we could. The traffic was really bad, which was very shocking to Josh. There were many looky-lues. The further we got to Sandy Hook, the more sites on the side of the road of stuffed animals, flowers and signs.

There were 26 Christmas Trees set up on the street leading to the school

Another day we went into the city...NYC. It was so cold and pretty much miserable. It is the last time we will do the city during the holidays. It was so crowded, we could hardly walk anywhere. We would go into a store and have to leave right away due to crowds and long lines. We also met up with a mission buddy, Josh Smith, while we were there, which was fun to catch up.