Who cares that we’re nearly 2 months into the new year. Let’s take a look back and see how the Wiktors spent their first East coast Christmas. Our December was jam packed with activities, it’s no wonder three of the four Wiktors were down for the count by the time Christmas arrived. I’m getting ahead of myself though.

The Christmas celebrations started with a family party at Phil’s work and the kids were very excited to see the guy in the red suit. While he may of looked the part, he certainly wasn’t very jolly and didn’t even say a peep to the kids. Fortunately, our little ones didn’t seem to mind and were happy to trot away with their tiny candy canes after the photo op.

At pre-school the kids spent much of December preparing for their Christmas show. I may be a bit biased, but the kids were so adorable and two months later they’re still running around the house singing the songs. Ok, that part is not so adorable. Nonetheless, it was fun to watch their little personalities shine and listen to them sing with their classmates. After the show I got to join Will and Sophia in their classrooms for some cookie decorating. Sophia really got into the holiday season this year and loved learning about Christmas at school. She was so proud of the manger scene she drew and she mailed it to some relatives in Michigan.

Once all the school festivities were complete the real holiday fun began! We had the pleasure of hosting Phil’s mom, brother, sister and their respective spouses and little ones for the holidays. The house was bursting at the seems with fun and festivities…and that’s when the kids and I got sick. Despite the plague that tried to take over our house, we survived the holidays and loved having some of our family here to spend it with. We kicked off the holiday week with brunch and some additional family made the drive down from Maryland to spend the morning with us. The cousins had just arrived from Minnesota the night before and were full of energy and giggles. Sophia is certainly out numbered with all the boys! Mike, Heather and the boys spent a few nights down in Bassett and the Wiktors and Clays spent an evening in D.C. seeing the zoo lights. Once everyone was back in Stafford we spent the rest of the week relaxing, getting the formal tour at Phil’s office, eating, finishing our Christmas shopping & wrapping and relaxing and eating some more. Never a shortage of good food at casa de Wiktor!

In typical fashion, the family spoiled all of us and it was quite the event watching four kids four and under opening their presents on Christmas Eve. There was definitely a lot of Start Wars items under the tree this year, even for the big kids. Even though we don’t have a chimney (such a good observation, Sophia) Santa managed to find his way into our house to fill the stockings and we were spoiled all over again Christmas morning. The best gift of all was definitely spending the holidays with the family though! Oh, and maybe all the antibiotics I got the next day to make me feel better.

We finished out 2016 with one of our favorite West coast families and had an early New Year’s Eve celebration with the kiddos. Cheers to another year of new adventures!