Christmas Vacation pt.2

As I mentioned in the last post, we took off Christmas morning after Max's blessing to the Goodwin side of the family to open gifts in AV and spend the day there.
(Warning-lots of pictures this post)

We got to the house when everyone was getting ready to head to singles ward to hear my oldest brother, Aaron give a talk so Henry got to open his stocking to abate his gift opening giddiness.

Luckily for Henry, singles ward sacrament was cut short because the majority of their choir didn't show so soon everyone was back and Henry got ready to open gifts.

This is pretty much what Henry's face looked like the entire time. He was so excited with each gift and wanted to stop and play with each one.

Typical Jacob-big box full of newspaper and you have to search for your gift.

My mom in her absolute surprise and joy to find she had *finally* gotten an iPhone.

Uncle Aaron had to get Henry yet another sword, I'm sorry, I mean, 'cutlass'....uhg.

Johann did get his Beatles glasses despite his wife telling them they were taken out of stock never to be sold again.

Uncle Aaron got everyone some sweet hats

And Henry even did some secret shopping with Grammy and picked out these cute slipper socks for Daddy and Mommy. We love them!

After everyone looked through all their loot, we prepared for our annual Mexican Christmas dinner. I know it probably seems ghetto but dang it, give me my mom's homemade chicken taquitos, enchillades, rice, beans, and home made salsas and guac over ham and potatoes
ANY. DAY. We also had some yummy yogurt tortes for dessert. mmmm. It was a delicious evening.

I love seeing how Henry reacts to Christmas a little differently each year. I think this was the first year he really got what was going on and it was so much fun to witness. It was a crazy week and I didn't get things done exactly how I wanted this year but we did have a lot of fun.

Moving on to the rest of the week:

Tuesday we went to what will be our "however often we're all in town" book club meeting at Lola's with some of our friends. We read Hard Times by Dickens (cheery for Christmas-right?) and while we all agreed the book was kind of a flop, we enjoyed each others company and the food immensely. We even got to have Bert and Charlie over to the house to hear about their Russian exploits after until they had to head out for some family stuff. We definitely miss being able to hang out with them.
Later that night, at 11, Johann had to get his cousins who flew in from Uruguay and take them and some of their luggage to his parents in Riverside. Naturally he was pooped the next day and slept in late at his parents so Henry and I had a quiet but nice day running errands and hanging out with my mom.

Thursday we had a family day playing down the hill in Rancho Cucamonga.

Oh, Henry, you ham.

We went to Kabuki for lunch and oh man have I missed it. It really hit the spot. Henry's chicken took a lot longer than our food so he finally gave in and decided to try one of the rolls and ate about half and seemed to enjoy it. Woo hoo!

After some more playing around we went to Johann's parents to meet up with the family from Uruguay. Johann's cousin, Leo (who we met last year) his wife Rosana and their two girls Sophia and Lisset.

Henry and the girls were instant friends even with the language barrier. They are really sweet girls and played with him all night. He absolutely adores them.
The funniest part of that night had to be when the girls were talking to Henry in spanish and Henry started trying to talk back in 'spanish'. His version was pretty hilarious.

Friday we were back in AV and celebrating my mom's birthday, which I realize I have no pictures of-boo. She celebrated the big 6-4. I am constantly amazed at how selfless my mom is and how she focuses on everyone but herself. I sure do love my mama and was happy to celebrate another birthday with her!

Saturday was New Years eve and we went to Riverside to celebrate with the Simonds family and cousins.

The kids started getting pooped and laid down to watch some TV.
And hey-look at the girls sweet braids, yup, I'm proud I can still do it.

Henry playing with Johann's uncle Chuck. We love when he comes because he runs and wrestles with Henry, much to Henry's total delight.

And, of course, we all had to get some baby lovin' in while we could! Johann was still contagious the last time we'd seen Max so this was his first time getting to hold his nephew!

And the highlight of the night for me was watching Johann play Just Dance 3 with his brother. These boys are so shy, to dance like that in front of anyone was fantastic.

Pretty much everyone except yours truly and Kailee managed to get harassed enough to show off some dance moves throughout the night. Henry, Sophia and Lisset were the main dancers and had a blast doing it.
We rang in the New Year at 9 with some sparkling cider and headed back to AV to rest up.

Sunday we went to sacrament meeting and then drove Henry around so he could take a nap. I didn't want to do 2 transitions into primary in 2 different wards so we figured best to wait until we were in our home ward. Oh, I am dreading Sunday. =)

We all ended up passing out with Henry after we got home and ate lunch. The rest of the day was spent snuggling and just resting, chatting and getting ready to head back to Las Vegas.
Monday morning we finished packing and had a big breakfast together with my mom, the Rafferty's and Aaron while watching the Rose Parade. Then we said so long and headed back to LV.

The two weeks flew by so quickly and I am always depressed for at least half a day after we leave home. I know living with our families would get old pretty fast, but I am looking forward to the summer when we'll most likely be there for a month or two. I love and miss not being able to be within 45 minutes of all the people who are most important to us. And it doesn't hurt that food magically appears for breakfast, lunch and dinner either ;-)

Here's to a good Christmas vacation and hopefully a great year to come!