Christmas Came Early This Year...And Kept On Coming!

We had planned to head to my sister's house in PA Christmas Eve and stay for the weekend, and I was not about to drag all of our gifts for one another in the car, especially when Gabriel had no idea that it was not Christmas day! In fact, I figured he would be thrilled to get a second Christmas on Saturday. 

We decided to start our Christmas the evening of the 23rd just as it was getting dark...you know how important it is to get the mood set for opening gifts with a 19 month old, right? Oh, wait it doesn't matter at all and I'm just getting caught up in the wanderlust of a perfect Christmas setting? Oh. Silly me. 


Well, Gabriel thoroughly enjoyed himself ripping into his presents and stocking. He especially enjoyed digging into Laney and Tsali's stockings and handing out treats! I had a misconception that I could get away with giving Gabriel clothes this year for Christmas...I mean yes, we did get the child toys too, but I thought hey he'll have fun opening more gifts and it's clothes that he needs anyway. I couldn't have been more wrong. The very first gift he opened that was a shirt he promptly dropped on the floor in route to his new tonka truck! Foiled! 

We had a blast just the same, and Gabriel definitely approved of his new truck and drill (the boy loves tools...I wonder where he gets that?), along with all of the other toys. We ended our night with Gabriel asking for "more more" Christmas :). Oh just wait...

We headed out Christmas Eve morning and arrived in PA before noon. Let Christmas number 2 begin! Gabriel and Andy and I had a good time catching up and relaxing. When evening rolled around, Gabriel got to open one gift from Mimi before he went to bed...reindeer pajamas! They lasted all of about 5 minutes :) - then he tugged at the feet and collar and said "off off". Oh well, we snapped a quick picture and called it a night, promising "more more Christmas" when he woke up...

Well 5:15 AM rolled around and Gabriel decided it was time to get up for Christmas, so us groggy adults relented to him and began the coffee brewing and Christmas morning goody baking. He excitedly opened his gifts, and a lot of ours too! He had so much fun ripping the paper and seeing what was inside each package. Gabriel's third Christmas brought trucks (lots of trucks), cars, mag-neatos, books, a plush Big Bird (his fav character), and lots of other great loot. After a nap, we headed to a local park to burn off some Christmas energy...too bad it was freezing cold, but he had fun while it lasted. 

The day after Christmas was pretty low key...Andy and I left Gabriel with Mimi and Aunt Laurel to run a quick errand....or turns out to give Gabriel his 4th and final Christmas. We found some after Christmas sales on some toys we knew he'd love and we could not help ourselves. So the day after Christmas Gabriel got a couple of block sets and a set of dinosaurs :). Geez, Merry Christmas Gabriel!!

We had hoped that the big snow storm would hit Harrisburg while we were there, but it never came...so we did not get a white Christmas...but we did come home to 22 inches of snow in NYC! Wow! It was like driving into a winter wonderland. We met up with Uncle Matt and Mandy for some sledding and playing in the snow, which was a short adventure due to the biting wind gusts! Time to go in for some homemade hot chocolate and chowder, yum! What a nice close to our Christmas weekend!  


We ended up taking more video than pictures this year, but I think there are still plenty to peruse!