Christmas really did happen...

Ok, I have been meaning to do a Christmas post, but here are my reasons for being so late:

#1 The day we all woke from our Christmas festivities, my mom, 2 "little" brothers and niece were sick. Hours later my Dad joined the party and the rest of us fled in hopes of not contracting whatever they had. We made the 5 hour journey home, got Cora ready for bed and promptly got Super icky sick. After spending the night with alternating cold and hot sweats, and paying plenty of homage to the porcelain god we were over the worst. Luckily Cora was kind enough to sleep through the night and not get sick herself.

#2 The lost passport. Much of our time was consumed with extra time looking around for the lost passport and then hoofing it up to DC to get a replacement.

#3 Leaving the country. Minor details like trying to make sure everything was in order. I think it is all OK, but there is always that eerie feeling that you are forgetting something big.

Now that we are safely here, unpacked and mostly un-jetlagged, here are my favorite pics from Christmas. We spent it with my side of the family this year, and rented a beach house. It was tons of fun and we had a great time collecting shells, going for walks on deserted beaches, birdwatching and eating like there was no tomorrow.

Cora having her first sucker. She was following her cousins around begging licks off of theirs, and was in heaven when she got her own.

We brought a small tree and lights, then the children decorated it with pipe cleaners. It was very fun to look at, and made me smile!
My mom dancing with baby girl.
Christmas morning Cora was up first. It was hard to convince her not to raid EVERYONE'S stocking. Sooooo many cool things to look at!

Cora's cousins are so sweet to her. She adores children, so to have her cousins around paying attention to her and being so sweet is something really special. She just beams when they play with her.
Cora really wanted to run into the water this time. When we were in Mexico during the summer she wanted nothing to do with the ocean. Now, in the dead of winter it was a constant struggle to keep her from running into the waves.
We were the only people on the beach many times.

I think we may have set a record for number of people in a hot tub. The water level dropped a TON when everyone finally got out. Brian talked everyone into going for polar bear runs into the freezing pool, and then jumping back into the hot tub. Eventually the hot tub wasn't so hot, but it was lots of fun!
One of my favorite pictures, this is Beth taking snitching off of the gingerbread house to a new level.