Hanukkah Celebration

Since  Sister and Jim were in the process of moving to Charlotte during Hanukkah, we delayed our family celebration until they came into town for Christmas, just adding to all the family time and excitement!  Its going to be a fun filled couple of days, with Nicks birthday celebration yesterday (horrible wife...I did not take 1 picture), Hanukkah tonight, christmas eve tomorrow, and of course followed by Christmas.

Nick and I got to enjoy some time with Sister and Jim while Asher took his nap.  Now that they live in Charlotte, I want to soak up as much time with them as possible when they are in town!  Once Asher woke up, we played outside until dinner was ready.

After dinner it was time for Hanukkah!  The living room was filled with presents and we couldn't wait to tear into them!  We lit the menorah and then it was go time.  We were so excited that we didn't even take a family photo with the menorah like we always do.

Usually, we all tear into our presents at the same time, but everyone wanted to watch Asher open his presents so we let him open all of his first.  No surprise that Asher made out like a bandit:  B-dot bath toys, Curious George books, a solar system mobile, a wooden puzzle train, a crib pillow, a recliner to keep at Gigi and Poppys, and new fuzzy crocs.  Much to my surprise, he  was the most excited about the crocs...he dropped all toys, insisted that we put them on and then strut around showing off his new shoes...we even had to remind him to come back and open more presents.

Once Asher had plenty to play with we moved onto Gigi and Poppy.  We all watched them open their gifts, and then all us kids tore into our piles!  I failed at taking a lot of pictures and documenting everyone opening their gifts..I was too distracted by all my new wonderful things!!

I think the best gift of the entire night was a remote control LED UFO that Asher gave to Poppy.  This kept everyone, even the dogs, entertained once all the unwrapping was finished.

Im very disappointed that we did not get our annual family photo in front of the menorah, but at least we have next year.  Jim got a set of lighting trees for Hanukkah, so we did have a little fun posing for him while he tried them out!

Asher slept over at Gigi and Poppy's so Nick and I could stay and play.  He was such a good boy, and even had Poppy read him one of his new books while he drank his milk before bed.

Thanks Mom and Dad for all of our gifts and for yet another fun filled Hanukkah Celebration!