Merry Christmas!!

We have so many family members that we are able to spend Christmas with, and we love every minute of it! For Part 1, we had Christmas Eve brunch and opened presents with the Dixon/Waggoner/Fairbrother/Hall clan.

Group picture of everyone except Jason (who was taking the picture) and Jeff and Ellie (who were napping):

Did I mention Jeff was napping?

That night we went to the service at Cody and Amy's church, then started Part 2 with the Lewis family. We made cookies with Grammy (Jason's girlfriend Kelly came over), gave the kids new pajamas, listened to Papi read A Pirate's Night Before Christmas, and left cookies and letters for Santa.

We spent a rainy, snowy Christmas at home opening presents, eating, and playing in the snow! The kids raked in tons of stuff including a bike for Aidan from Santa, and a princess castle for Avery from Papi and Grammy.

Merry Christmas from the Stewards!!!

While We Were Out

Here's some of what my parents did with the kids while we were gone. They went to Abilene to see my grandparents...they live on a farm and the kids love it there:

Otto the Elf didn't slack on his job!

Aidan was a sheep in his first-grade Christmas pageant at school. I hated to miss it but my mom got the whole thing on video!

Avery had her Christmas program as well:

Thank you Papi and Grammy for keeping our kids safe and happy!

London

After four days in Paris, we took the Chunnel over to London for three days.

Buckingham Palace, which was close to our hotel. We went to the Changing of the Guards, which was a little dull (Daniel was not impressed):

Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Oxford & Regent Street, London Bridge, Tower of London:

London Eye:

We missed our kids like crazy and were so glad to get home, but we had an incredible time. There is no one I would rather have spent this amazing, romantic, once-in-a-lifetime trip with! I love you Daniel!! :)

Paris

Daniel took me on a 8-day trip to Paris and London earlier this month! I had never been to Europe and was very excited :) It was hard being away from the kids for so long (and we had to miss all their Christmas activities at school) but they were in good hands. Daniel's dad kept them the first two days, then my parents flew in for the long shift.

View from our hotel room in Paris, if you can believe it:

Louvre Museum:

Notre Dame church:

Versailles: