Over the weekend, we were blessed to be able to celebrate Christmas with Tad’s side of the family!  His parents were so kind to rent a beach house for us for the weekend so we could all spend some extended time together!

We loved reading Christmas books together.

The weekend was so relaxing (as you can see below, I actually had time to drink hot coffee and read a few cooking magazines)!

The back yard was sandy (obviously), so the kids had a good time digging and playing!

Drew (8) dug a really big hole!

CC had such a fun time.

Jude was content to sit on everyone’s laps the whole time we were outside.  (Vera would not have done that at that age!)

We had a fire pit, which was so cozy!

Tad, the girls, and I walked down to the ocean.  It was windy, so the waves we really high!

Cordelia was delighted by the beach.

Love my sweet husband.  🙂  It was awesome to have so much quality time with him this weekend!

Vera loved the beach too, but she did get a little scared by a crab we saw!

Back at the fire pit, Jude loved being thrown in the air by his Uncle Jed.

Naturally, we made s’mores!  We are particular about our chocolate.

Aunt Angela and Jude

“Just one more cracker, Mommy!”

Vera wanted to roast her own marshmallow.

That evening we had soup (buffalo chicken chili, beef stew in mashed potato bowls, and minestrone) for dinner.  After dinner, the kids got on their new pajamas and decorated the tree!

Earlier in the day, they painted ornaments with Grammy.  CC is hanging on her painted ornament.

Before bed we had a family sing-a-long!  We sang lots of Christmas carols and worship songs accompanied by Uncle Jed on the guitar.

 The next morning, we had to get a picture of all the cousins together!

They were much more cooperative than last year!

Our tree looked so pretty and we loved the double-sided fireplace!

This year, the adults drew names for gifts, and all the kids made gifts for one another.  They seemed much more focused on giving rather than getting, and I think that was partly because they had helped make the gifts!  It was so sweet to see.

Tad gave his dad a SUPER hot salsa, and while Dad pretended like it wasn’t that bad, he downed more than several glasses of water (while hiccuping/crying) in the kitchen!  Quite entertaining for the rest of us!

We had a lovely brunch that morning with fresh fruit, donut holes, lemon poppyseed scones, goat cheese eggs, chocolate cherry granola, chocolate chip pancakes, and bacon!

Great way to start the day!

The kids enjoyed some hot chocolate in their special mugs that Angela painted their names on.

Too cute, right?

Later in the afternoon, Haley helped Angela and me make some sugar cookies.

We did a few crafts before dinner too.  Washi tape is always a hit!

 I folded the cloth napkins to look like Christmas trees, and I made monograms for the place cards.  Love how it turned out!

Angela decorated the table with ornaments and shells.

Everyone was hungry… and it was a good thing they were!

We had Caesar salad, sweet potato casserole, loaded baked potatoes, lima beans, green beans, peas, bread, and filet mignon!  Scrumptious!

The cousins all played so well together and it was so sweet to see how much they love each other.  CC loves her Haley!

On the way home Sunday night, we had a flat tire (boo!), but we made it home on the spare!

We have so many wonderful memories from this weekend, and we are thankful for our extended family!

The group photo is on Dad C.’s camera, so I’ll add it to the post when I get it!