On December 23rd we made the cross country trek to Atlanta to arrive at Nonna and Pop Pop's in time for Christmas. The kids were ah-mazing on the flight! I guess it would have been nice if Charlotte slept (not for one minute) but she didn't scream or anything so we'll take it. She was BUSY but it was ok!
The older three kids were seriously incredible-Joseph and Ella had their new tablets and even with some wi-fi issues for a bit everyone was happy and easy for the whole travel time. The longest part of the trip always seems to be when we get to Atlanta because after we get our luggage Rich has to go and get the rental car so I'm left hanging with the kids and a TON of luggage for another 30 or so minutes after a long day of traveling so far. We picked up a snack though and played random games and Daddy arrived soon enough so it was all good!
Here is Julia waiting patiently for the rental car! Nothing like lying on the floor of the airport-eww!
We got to Nonna and Pop Pops and the festivities began immediately! After dinner they had ice cream cake and gifts waiting for Joseph and Ella for their December birthdays so it was such a fun way to be welcomed! Sam, Joey and sweet baby Stella were there waiting for us so it was great to see cousins immediately, too!!!
Sunday was Christmas Eve but since we went to church that morning for regular Sunday mass we decided to hold off on Christmas mass until Christmas Day. The kids just had such a great time of spending time together and playing together all day that it flew by and before we knew it, it was time for the Ducote tradition of opening gifts on Christmas Eve.
Aunt Katelyn got a new bike for Christmas and Charlotte wanted to be the first to test out the safety feature that came along with it!
Lots of excitement from these sweet cousins!!
Julia and Sam are only a month apart and were so cute together.
Nonna read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to everyone
And, then, we got in touch with Santa!!!! We had been trying to call in to him all night long to find out where he was with his travels but the line was busy but then Uncle Justin tried one more time and we caught him!! Oh, the excitement and the giggles and the joy!!!!! Lots of reassurance that everyone had been good this year and that he was on his way.
Pop Pop opened up the chimney and fireplace doors for Santa and then the kids made their way to bed.
Such excitement before bed but thankfully it didn't take anyone too long to fall asleep.
Before we knew it, Christmas morning was here!!!! The hustle down the stairs was priceless and lots of excited faces. The kids started with their stockings which had all sorts of fun little things (Santa wraps items in the stockings, too) and then they got to the gifts!
A crawling BabyAlive doll for both Ella and Julia!!
Love this sleepy look on Charlotte! She totally got into the unwrapping, too, and seemed happy about her very first baby doll and some new food for the pretend kitchen at home.
I didn't get any pictures of Joseph unwrapping his gifts but he made out pretty great, too, with the Lego Kai Mech being his most favorite gift!
After a delicious Christmas breakfast we all took a break from the toys and got ready for Christmas mass at noon.
The girls were showing off their gifts later that day! We had a wonderful and delicious Christmas dinner and it was great to be surrounded by so much family-Mark, Mattie, Brent, Jeff and Katelyn were all there for dinner, along with Justin and their family. A very merry Christmas!
On the day after Christmas we visited Rich's good friend from high school, Garrett, his girlfriend and his mom. We love seeing Gigi and she is always so excited to see our family. They had two big dogs that the kids loved playing with so everyone kept entertained for the hour or so that we were there.
Following the visit we went to The Varsity, to enjoy their iconic burgers and ambience. It was a pretty neat experience, although I don't feel the need to go back again-ha. Checked it off our Atlanta list though!
Brent lives close by so we headed over to see his place after lunch-super cute place that he has in a really neat area of the city and we were lucky enough to get a tour from him of the neighborhood and to explore for a few hours that afternoon. Katelyn, Jeff, Mark, Mattie and Brent's girlfriend, Chelsea, also joined us which was great.
First stop was a park right around the corner from his house.
We walked through this pretty cool tunnel that was filled with graffiti-I wouldn't want to walk through it at night but felt safe with all the Ducote brothers in tow today!
We walked along the Beltline for a bit and then ended up at a very cool open market type of place. The kids got ice cream and we had fun with my phone while waiting for it!
We got back to Nonna and Pop Pop's that afternoon just in time for Michael and John to arrive. Yay! Now we just needed Max and Annabelle to arrive tomorrow and we'd have everyone-so much fun!
Joseph, especially, was in heaven for the rest of the week having all of the cousins together and this is how these three boys slept every night!
By Wednesday mid morning all of the cousins were together so the real fun could begin! They all played so well together and just had the best time! We had dance parties, lots of Lego building, all sorts of cousin parades and shows, flag football games, climbing trees...all sorts of good stuff!!
We had family photos on Wednesday afternoon so spent the morning just hanging out (and getting Charlotte unlocked out of the van-oops!!!) but the kids and dads/uncles had a great game of capture the flag after photos! We even had to stop and get Ella a new pair of sneakers since all she had packed were her cowgirl boots or church shoes which definitely wouldn't work for such an intense game! Love that she hangs with all of the boys!
On Thursday we decided to all venture out to downtown Atlanta and met at a park to spend the morning. It was chilly but nobody seemed to mind too much and was nice to explore something different and to get out of the house for a bit.
Pretty winter day!
Joseph received a flag football set for Christmas so we brought this to the park and the boys had a good time playing it.
We ended up at Mellow Mushroom for lunch which, of course, was so much fun to all be at a restaurant together and a great place to warm up!
That night we just all hung out together back at Nonna and Pop Pops and then we were up bright and early the next morning to make our way back to San Diego. It was such a great almost week in Atlanta with such wonderful family and I just absolutely love seeing how these cousins can go for sometimes such long stretches of not seeing one another but then pick up exactly where they left off-they are so luck to have one another and this special bond. Speaking of bond, we had to take an early morning picture of these three who share the special bond of their name-love seeing pictures of the three of them over the years and watching how Joseph has grown!
With Georgia heading to the Rose Bowl in a few days the airport was all decked out with people wearing their Georgia red and we even came across this inflatable at one of the gates-lots of excitement!
We had such a memorable Christmas in Atlanta and thankfully everyone was healthy which made it an even better trip! The flight home was just as good as the flight there, and Charlotte even napped for a bit...a short bit but it was still a bit...but we were thankful to see Poppa at the airport and be home!! After a few long nights with Charlotte there (she didn't sleep great with all of us being in the same room) and the busy plane ride I was happily ready to pass her off to Poppa for a bit and was looking forward to a good night's rest all in our own beds. We are always sad to leave everyone in Atlanta but are so thankful for all of them and we look forward to our next time together!
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