Christmas Up North

Emily and Daddy on Christmas Eve

We had a whirlwind trip to Michigan for Christmas this year. There were a variety of reasons we decided to go up for Christmas instead of in July like we usually do.

The trip was a good one. We stayed at my in-law's house since they don't live too far from where my family lives in Bay City. We drove up on the 23th, stopping at Todd's cousin's house before we went to his parents. It's a 14 hour drive so it is a very long day.

All Ready for Santa!

On Christmas Eve, we visited with Todd's grandmother and just rested up. We went to Christmas Eve service with my in-laws. It was a lovely service, though Emily got tired. We went back and Emily got to open her Christmas Eve present, which was her Christmas footie pj's. We let her play a little before I put her to bed.

Santa wraps a little too well

She went to sleep pretty fast, so I was able to get up and play Santa before heading to bed myself. It wasn't long before it was Christmas morning and time to open presents. Emily got to open her presents from Santa, which were the only presents under the tree. It didn't take long and of course, she wanted all of her presents out of their boxes.

Emily and her cousin opening presents

We had a little while before people started showing up. Todd's brother and his wife came over along with their two kids. Todd's grandmother came over as well. And my in-law's had invited my dad and his wife over, which they accepted so they could spend a little extra time with Emily.

Pop-Pop helping with presents

There was a ton of food so we had our meal first and it was so good. Then it was time to bring out the presents. Because Emily had two sets of grandparents there, her pile was taller than she was. But her cousins didn't see to mind.

My best present was a doll that my dad's wife, Esther had found that was from when I was a little girl. There was some of the original clothes as well as the little wooden shoes that my parents got for the dolly when I was younger. I got teary eyed and then promptly spilled a glass of water all over me. I missed some of Emily's presents since I had to go change clothes.

We spent a little longer at the in-law's and then we headed off to my cousin's house. Her little boy is 16 months old, and I haven't gotten a chance to meet him. She is also very pregnant (she was nearly a week overdue at Christmas) so I had hoped that she would have the baby while we were in Michigan. Alas, she didn't and is still waiting. There were other members of the family there too, so we spent some time there. Emily had fun playing with the toys and my cousin's little boy was fascinated by Emily. She is good with younger kids so they had a good time.

After that, we went followed my dad to his side of the family's Christmas. We went so I could see my great-aunt Jackie and my great-aunt Dorothy, but I also got to see several members of my dad's family that I hadn't seen in years. There was a little girl Emily's age, so she had a great time there too. Even Todd found someone to talk football with. We didn't stay long because at this point, it was getting late.

Emily and her cousins

The next day we didn't go anywhere, but Todd's brother brought his kids over. Emily had a great time playing with her cousins. Though she did get a little rough with her cousin, Austin, though he got rough right back. Mostly they just had a good time together.

Todd's mom watched the kids, which let Todd and I get a chance to go to the movies. We saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie, which was very good. The rest of the evening was pretty low key and I went to bed early since we had an early start the next day.

We went back into Bay City on our way out of town to see my grandpa. We didn't stay very long because it had started to really snow and we wanted to get out of Michigan. The drive back was long but it was mostly just wet. We got back home just after midnight.

It was a good Christmas though I think we are going to go back to going during the summer. It was really a whirlwind trip and I'm still tired from all the traveling.

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