Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve with the Grandparents
Christmas 2013 has come and gone.  Anna was thrilled to have Grandma and Grandpa come to spend Christmas this year.  Grandma and Grandpa were jet-setting and flew in on December 19 in time for Anna's Christmas concert at school and flew out Christmas morning so they could spend the day with Aidyn.  As always, Grandma and Grandpa proved even better than Santa.

They were not prepared for the spring-like weather that ensued when they first arrived with temperatures in the low 70s for the first day of winter.  Grandpa helped Joe and Theresa rake the last of the leaves out of the yard and assisted Joe in a drainage project.....all while wearing his slippers (he was not prepared for warm weather and outside work).  Grandma took care of LOTS of baking and supplied the goodies for Theresa to take to the neighbors and the office, where Grandma got all the credit.

When they were not working, Anna did take her grandparents out on the town.  There was the annual trip to the U.S. Botanical Gardens to enjoy the train display.  There was also a first-time tour of Meadow Lark Botanical Gardens in Vienna for the winter light show.  This is fairly new and turned out to be spectacular! (winterwalkoflights.com).  Grandpa is already plotting his own light show for next year.  Theresa and Joe got to enjoy an evening out at a holiday party while the grandparents took Anna out for dinner.......at Popeye's chicken.  We are not sure why Anna picked that place since she has never been there before.  Rest assured she has never been there with her parents.

Meadowlark Gardens with Grandpa
Theresa secured tickets for the children's mass on Christmas Eve (that's right......you actually need to wait in line to get tickets for this one.  It is the biggest mass event of the year).  The tickets were definitely worth the wait as we were treated to a first class concert thanks to a spectacular choir.  Afterwards, we hurried home to light the luminaries, a neighborhood tradition.  We failed to save enough milk jugs to make the luminaries, thus there was a last minute scramble to coffee venues a couple of days before Christmas to secure the required number of jugs.  This finally ended with Grandpa purchasing some gallons of water.  Let's just say we were well hydrated as we sought to empty containers.  Grandpa made the luminaries and lit them on Christmas Eve.  This was followed by a delicious seafood dinner, where we were joined by friend Anna.  Little Anna could barely eat dinner after eating most of the shrimp cocktail appetizer.  She managed to have plenty of energy to open gifts from Grandma and Grandpa.  Anna left some cookies and a note for Santa (she carefully labeled the different types of cookies).

On Christmas morning, Anna was the last one up and made it just in time to tell Grandma and Grandpa goodbye.  She was thrilled that Santa ate the cookies and left her a note to thank her.

A big thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for making the trip.  Merry Christmas!

The Two Annas


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