The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas went very fast. I'm sure Ciara's pregnancy helped this as we all watched her belly grow. We were excited to have Aunt Emily and Bob home for the holidays. It wouldn't be a holiday without some last minute rearranging of plans. Emily and Bob drove up from Newark due to a snow storm on the east coast and Aunt Aoie and Uncle Josh were unable to make it up. We've been trying to start our own family traditions and those who were able to make it helped to kick it off. Many families do an annual cribbage tournament, or board games. We tried to incorporate that, but added our own twist. Ciara bought some tee-shirt materials with the idea that, as a family, we could make the trophy for the year's champion. We played a variety of games - Wii Monopoly, Apples to Apples, Pictureeka, Buzz, Spoons and Spades. It was clear that we were outmatched by our visiting mountaineer.
We woke Christmas morning and prepared a feast for our family. Nanny-Noodies, made a delicious French Toast casserole dish as well as an egg hash, Ciara made Eggs Benedicts with homemade hollandaise sauce and I did homemade sausage and sweet potato waffles, which exploded in the iron. I had melted the butter but neglected to actually add it to the mix. Oops. Needless to say, we ate well and plenty. When my mother showed up, she brought the roast beast, her favorite. We picked and ate for hours throughout the day. It was a simple relaxing Christmas day.
Dan, Cora and Connor went home Christmas night, however Emily and Bob stayed behind. Aden got to spend some quality time with his Aunts. We did some traveling around our area including a great lunch at The Last Unicorn in Waterville and a trip to our favorite bar, Three Tides. Bob and I enjoyed sampling their house drafts and picked out a couple growlers to take home. The Em-Bob duo stayed with us for an additional 3 nights until we took a slow drive down the coast to Bath. We stuck around a couple days to drink the growlers and see some more sights including the Portland Headlight. 
Aden got a sample of Lobster, which he was oddly unafraid of. After a great few days with family from near and far, we gave our hugs and returned home to Thorndike.
