Christmas 2014

 

Getting back right before Christmas was a little rough.  The 24th was spend unpacking, doing laundry, going grocery shopping and wrapping presents. 

 

In the evening, Patrick had to work.  Right before he left we had a simple dinner of mandarin orange chicken salad.  After all the rich food in Vegas, we were ready for something light.

 

 

 

I made hot cocoa for the kiddos and we loaded up to go look at some Christmas lights.

 

 

 

           Our very favorite. THE CHRISTMAS HOUSE we usually see on the 23rd when we sleep under the tree (missed that this year).  The owners were out front greeting all who came to see their house. Looks like they have managed to somehow add more lights this year.

Our neighborhood has been stringing light between houses for the last 3 years or so.  I love it!!  This year even more houses joined in.  Makes the neighborhood feel so festive.

I love seeing the luminaires people put out on Christmas eve.  Such a cool New Mexico tradition.

SANTA CAME

 

In the morning, I slept till 8:30 before Griffin started knocking at the door.  Patrick had come home and put on a movie, and let me sleep a little longer.

 

Santa brought the kids each a new bike and a trampoline!

 

 

We had a yummy breakfast of sausage, smoothies, and monkey bread that our friends had dropped off for us the night before.

 

It was a great Christmas!  We really are blessed as a family. 

Vegas baby... Day 4 & 5

Monday we went to see some of the hotels that we had not seen yet.  The flamingo is pretty cool. I had never been there before. Cesar's Palace is always one of my favorites.  Love it!  We watched the moving statues show.  The kids especially enjoyed it.

 

 

 

Naughty picture but it is Vegas after all!

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By this time it was mid afternoon.  Everyone was exhausted.

 We decided to go back to the hotel to take naps so we could survive the evening.
Pat, Savannah, and I all slept for at least two hours while the boys watched TV in the other room (when George left we took over his room so we had 2 jr. suites).

 

When we woke up it was dark and this was our view from our room.

 

Savannah wasn't feeling very good.  She had a bit of a fever.

 

 

We finally found Christmas at the Belliago.  It was stunning!  It was also super crowded.   

 

After dinner we went back to the hotel and got the kids all settled for bed.  Then, Pat and I went with his dad to the MJ live show  his dad bought tickets for (Thank you).  It was a fun show and rekindled my love for Michael Jackson's music.

 

 

After the show Pat and I decided to do a little gambling. On my 2nd penny machine I put in a voucher for 12.00 and on my first play I hit it big!

 

 

I was pretty excited.  I never win anything.  We called it a night after that.

 

Tuesday morning we (Pat, Griffin & I) woke up super early and walked with uncle Joe.  We decided to go see the Belliago without all the crowds.

 

 

These houses were so cool.  The roofs were made out of frosted mini wheat cereal. They all even had smoke coming out of the chimneys.  There were also two train that went around the area.  They had cameras attached to the train and a live feed screen so you could see from the trains perspective.

The polar bears were made of white flowers.  While we were there they were changing them out for fresh flowers.  Amazing.  They were beautiful, the whole place was.

 

 

It is such a beautiful hotel. 

 

We walked back to the hotel where Savannah was awake and feeling sick.  We all got showered and ready for the day, then packed up.  We had brunch together then Dad & Deb took off.  We hung out with Joe for awhile until it was time to take him to the airport.

 

 

 

We didn't get back home until midnight.  We sure were happy to be out of the car.

 

It was such a fun trip!  There is already talk about doing it again next year.