Second Christmas in Chapel Hill

From Miami, we flew to North Carolina for Christmas round two at Uncle Matt, Aunt Krista and Cousin Addy's house. Opa came to pick us up at the airport and got the first Ahhoogah squeezes on the kids. The week was filled with a lot of kid-centric fun. Having all of Addy's toys to play with, her dog, Banjo, and the attention of so many adults was probably best of all.

An added bonus of our trip to NC was that Aunti Gia was home for the holidays so we got to see her for some beers and then again with the (melting down) kiddos. We were very impressed with the Chapel Hill library and Jude and I learned a lot in the pop-up planetarium! Now he is always looking for Orion's belt in the sky!

Christmas morning take two was a lot of fun as our kids tore through their presents. Maybe next year they'll learn to take things slow??!

A great gift for all- A Harry Potter Lego Set.

Super Hero Christmas

Handsome sweater and sweater dressed from Popsie and Syl. Maeve refused to wear hers...

They made a small dent in the lego project!

We went out to pizza dinner followed by the Chinese Lantern Festival in Cary. The festival was beautiful with lots of lit up displays and an impressive show. We met the Delviscios and tried to catch up amidst the chaos. Dinner out is so much more enjoyable when kids have dough to play with, cups with straws (and ice!) and the TV playing sports of course. 

Oma treated the girls to a wonderful Nutcracker performance in Durham. The production value and principle dances was great! One to remember.

Wine and cheese at Tom and Girija's. A lot of reminiscing about when we were just 4 young couples having fun in NYC and now with 6 kids between us! 

A joy to meet this happy, happy boy!

Opa made Jude a knight's costume, what fun.

Our first New Year's Eve out in 5 years (6 years since a proper one where I wasn't pregnant)! We went out with the Delviscio's to a bar in Durham with table shuffleboard and bocce. And then shutting down the fast food spot, Camp Out at 2am. Such a nice alternative to suffering through the firework racket in Amsterdam! Thank you Oma and Opa for babysitting and even more for getting up in the morning with the kiddos!

Sparking rose in a can called Babe, yes please! 

We came home to these two cuties asleep in our bed. 

New Year's day we were back to the Delviscio's for a New Year's day open house. They live across the street from a great park so the kids could go back and forth. 

3 little pigs production

Our gracious hosts were back to work after New Year's and cousin Addy was back to school so we did some exploring on our own. One day to the Duke Botanic Gardens followed by some Mexican food in Durham (got to load up while we are home!). 

The visitor center gave the kids some special duck food, which attracted all of the beautiful ducks!

On our last day, we checked out the Kidzu indoor play space. What a great resource for Chapel Hill families! The kids had a blast. Thank you M, K and A for your incredible hospitality and for hosting us for so long. And thank you Oma and Opa for all of your help with the kids! We miss you all!

And then it was time for packing and our goodbyes. In addition to all of the Christmas gifts we received, we also did a fair amount of shopping and decided to bring over our ski/snowboard clothes and camping gear. So we had two large bags, two large boxes, two roller boards, three backpacks, a tote bag, our travel stroller, a booster seat and a toddler car seat! Almost more stuff than we moved over with! Thankfully Oma took us to the airport and helped us wheel everything in. We had no idea how we were going to manage to get all of that stuff from baggage claim in Schiphol out to an Uber!

When we booked the flight, we knew there was a really short layover in Paris, but figured we should go for it and worst case, if we missed the flight, others were frequent enough to get home the same day. We arrive a bit late to Paris and see that we have 40 minutes until our next flight leaves. We had no idea that we had to go to a different terminal and go through security and immigration again! I was thinking- no way is this going to work! We were able to cut the line a bit at security and sweet talk our way into the EU passport lane at immigration. We were running, sprinting really and everyone else was taking their sweet time so I was hollering, "excuse moi! excuse moi!" We get to our terminal and hear the overhead message that our gate is closing in 2 minutes. Oh man, we were exhausted when we got on the plane, but oh so relieved! Pete had been running with Jude slung over his shoulder and was swerving Maeve's stroller between people like a mad woman! Of course our bags didn't make it in that short time, which was such a blessing as the airlines delivered them to our house over the next 24 hours, solving our dilemma of how to get all of our things home!

Can we join you in the stroller, too? We're exhausted! 

We attempted to stay awake the rest of the day. Maeve fell asleep watching TV. Jude couldn't get over how cute she looked and was all up on her. We were telling hime to give her some space, let her sleep and then next thing we know, he's asleep with her. Bless these intrepid travelers!

Christmas in Miami

We had spent the last two Christmases in the Netherlands so we knew it was time to spend one states-side. We were looking forward to seeing family, but dreading the long travel, anticipated jet lag and challenges packing for warm weather, cold weather and Christmas. We had such a wonderful three weeks though, so it was all worth it! 

We wanted the direct KLM flight to Miami, but that meant a 10 hour daytime flight, which was a little brutal. Think we'll do our best to stick to red-eyes from now on.

We left this in the morning:

 And around 4pm EST we had this!

Jude hadn't been to Nana and Pops' house since our Christmas there 3 years ago and Maeve had only been once when she was 9 months old! They had fun discovering all of the toys and Christmas decorations. We filled our week with the science museum, playground visits, pool time, library, a trip to the beach (that Jude was into, but tired Maeve was NOT!).

Jude loved the Banyon trees

Jude had asked for a time machine for Christmas and Pops didn't want to let him down. So he created a design using bamboo and palm fronds from their backyard and enlisted Jude's help. Such a special grandad-grandson project. 

Meanwhile, the ladies made some cookies

The kids found some fallen coconuts on their walk around the neighborhood. Pete managed to hack them open and the kids enjoyed trying the juice. 

One of the best things about being home with the grandparents is all of the free babysitting! My parents gave us their ACLU On the Basis of Sex Premier Tickets complete with drinks and bites at the Diane von Furstenberg boutique. #NotoriousRBG!

They took the kids out to see the lights while we were out. 

And a few hours at Crandon State Park where we sat and read books in peace on a nearly empty beach!

Leslie and Peyon came down for the weekend for some pre-Christmas celebrations. It was so great to see them and watch the cousins play together!

Santaland was a hit except that the big man decided he was going to take a break when we arrived so we didn't get any Santa photos.

We made it through a pizza dinner out with all of the kids and let them run off their energy at Giralda under the stars- stunning display of shimmering strips.

Modeling the gifts from Aunt Leslie (well, they may have switched :))

Christmas cupcakes. SO green!

We all enjoyed a very elaborate performance by Jude and Peyton. Part Frozen, part improve, part ??!??

We spent Christmas Eve morning at the beach before saying goodbye to L&P. Jude and Peyton were adorable playing together: see below! Maeve was a little more into the beach, but preferred her place in my arms. So many young families arrived at the lagoon and all were inviting us to come and play, but our kids were still not over their jet lag so they needed to leave early to rest. That is one thing I miss about America, families with children who speak English!  

 

We were greatly anticipating the children's Christmas Eve service at my parent's church. 3 years ago, Jude stole the show when he walked onto the stage during the choir's performance and followed along (minute 32 of this link). Well this year, my mom secured him a bona fide spot in the choir even though he was a bit too young to participate. He attended two rehearsals in the week leading up to the service and did great! It meant that he spent the whole service sitting with the choir so we missed him with us. We wondered how Maeve would react to the whole thing. Well, the girl behind her had a lollipop so she spent most of the service crying about not having a lollipop. Poor thing.

Serious performer. 

And a link to one of the songs of the performance is here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seJD49ghphQ&feature=youtu.be

Our big Christmas present was the kids sleeping in for once all week (and by that, I mean around 7-7:30am). A lot of excitement about Santa coming and the presents he brought.

Wow, Santa brought Maeve a lollipop! How did he know?!

Nana and Pops cooked us a feast and the kids loved the crackers and toys inside.

On our last day, we went to Fairchild Tropical Garden, where the kids enjoyed a nature scavenger hunt and running around one last day in shorts and t-shirts!

The butterfly house was a little terrifying for Maeve. 

While Pete and I were working our butts off trying to pack our belongings up for the next leg of our trip, Pops was hard at work putting the finishing touches on the time machine. I was content with the experience Jude had just helping to cut and line up the bamboo, but Pops is not one to give up on a project, no matter how long it may take. The end result was magic, with Jude going in and out of the future and all of the adults acting the part. And the controller for the time machine? A painted coconut of course.

Pete got a gift card for a local brewery so lucky us got another date afternoon/night, first at the brewery and then in Wynwood, bar hopping and indulging in great food.

Give us all the tacos!!

Thank you Nana and Pops for hosting a very special Christmas! Wonderful memories with everyone!