Christmas Cajun Style

December 2011

As has become our tradition, the weekend before Christmas, we headed to southern Louisiana for the annual Mhire family Christmas festivities. We arrived really late on Friday, so everyone was already in bed, but the first thing we did when everyone got up the next morning was open presents!

The boys spent forever playing with these cool rubber balls from Poppy and Gigi that lit up when they were bounced. They discovered they could get everyone to laugh if they put the balls under their shirts and you can imagine the hilarity that ensued after that.

 

Greta got a cool sous vide machine from Tom and a couple of cookbooks from us to get her started. I can't wait to taste her fancy new culinary creations!

These are a little out of order, but I wanted to be sure to show off the super cool PJs the boys got from Aunt T and Uncle Rob:

Last, but certainly not least, Poppy and Gigi bought the boys some cool Strider bikes, little 2-wheeler bikes with no pedals to help them learn balance before getting big boy bikes. Do you think Jack's excited?

Of course, we had to head outside in our PJs to give the bikes a try:

Later that evening, we headed to Tommy's Nanny Liz's house for the annual family white elephant gift exchange. I ended up with some cool gloves that you could wear and still control your I-Phone (a necessity for this phone-obsessed girl in cold weather), so I was pretty excited. With the addition of Noah and Murphy this year, there were so many little ones of the next generation around, so it was quite a lively night, but so much fun. Thanks to Brandi for taking all the pictures that day - somehow our camera didn't make it to the party.

Momom and Popop - the ones who stated it all!

Tom and his two lovely sisters, Nanny Liz and Nanny Melissa

And again with his kids...

Brandi and Ryan

The boys loved playing with their cool new cars!

 

And in the cool pack 'n play ball pit:

And with little Noah:

Here's one of all the girls and their kiddos - only one girl in the bunch!

Finally, with my two goofy boys, this was the best (and only) family picture of us from the night. Sigh...

After spending some time at the barn and hanging out with Poppy and Gigi on Sunday, we headed on to Tennessee on Monday after a short, but wonderful visit. Stay tuned!