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Christmas Eve at (the Garbers') Grandma Rita's and Grandpa Ken's. The boys eagerly anticipated the "start" of Christmas with going to Grandma and Grandpa's on Christmas Eve. Grandma Rita had the table filled with delicious food, including Sandy's incredible raviolis and her own chocolate fondue fountain and teriyaki grill. The boys were excited once again to see the "hundreds" of gifts that would be under the tree. Sam, of course, enjoyed ripping through the paper on their gifts and passing out the others and Alex eventually got into it. Logan was very content sitting with Sophie on the floor and playing with some a new baby pinball machine. Then, as Sammy hoped and predicted, Santa returned for a second year in a row to make a last-minute visit before starting his trip around the world! Santa did not disappoint. He had presents for everyone while Uncle Shawn threw out the comedic one-liners for each recipient. Sammy got to be his helper, while Alex and Logan preferred to watch him from a distance. After pictures with Santa, Sam and Alex headed outside with Uncle Shawn to test their new airplane shooter. It was very cool (the weather and the toy!) and was a hit, along with their remote-control UFO they have been flying through our house! By the end of the night, the boys were tired, but wired, anxiously begging us to get them home in bed before Santa got there...they were afraid he would pass our house up if he found an empty house and empty beds. We convinced them that there was plenty of time - until they were in bed, of course. Then it was time to get to sleep! They were too excited and it took a few "false alarms" of them thinking they heard Santa's sleigh or boots on the roof. But eventually they were able to fall asleep and actually stayed that way until almost 7:30a.m. - more than hour later than we expected!

Christmas Get-together with the Hulkenburg/Bowers/Schlueb cousins

We always look so forward to our semi-annual get-togethers with the "Lancaster people" and this year was wonderful, as always. We had a great spread at mom and dad's, which included Louise's famous potatoes, among many other yummy things. The girls and women got their baby and toddler fixes with the little ones, while Terri and I begged Cindy and Cheri to send their children to OSU or Capital so that we could use them as sitters. They are so great with the kids! And the boys, again, felt so big and important when they got to play with their older boy cousins. Fortunately, Luke and Nick are so good to them, entertaining them for hours. They all had so much fun together that it was hard for them to say good-bye. Alex cuddled with Luke and everyone exchanged hugs. The drive home from mom and dad's was spent trying to explain to them why we only get to see them twice a year most years. It was hard because we feel the same way! We could only tell them that and say that even though we are so busy with our separate family lives, we are so lucky to have these get-togethers every fe months where we have so much fun!