The Phelan Family Adventures: Christmas

We had a great Christmas. We were lucky enough to get to see both sides of our family during a very busy Christmas week! The Wednesday before Christmas we traveled north to Boardman to celebrate with Kevin's family. The spoiling process began and Charlotte received many great gifts. I believe her favorite was a Pooh Bear push toy that sings lots of songs which she loves to dance to and push around the house. As usual the trip was too short but it was great seeing everyone around the holidays. Kevin's work schedule allowed us all (Kevin, Kathleen, Charlotte, Dad, Mom, Evan and Shane) to attend Christmas Eve mass as a family. This is one of my favorite family traditions and I was overjoyed that it worked out for Charlotte's first Christmas Eve. She did great at church as she usually does. But each time we are sort of waiting for that to change. Food and milk usually do the trick! It helped that we were at the "children's" mass and she very much enjoyed watching the kids act out the Christmas story. We spent Christmas morning, day and evening at my parent's house. Everyone met bright and early which was a change from the last 5-7 years. As we have gotten older the start time at my parent's kept getting pushed back. But Miss Charlotte changed all that and at 8am we were opening presents! The spoiling process continued in a big way. It was so fun to watch her open her presents. She would tear the paper one little piece at a time and hand them to Kevin. Her face would light up when she saw the toy/book/clothes etc underneath. We spent the rest of the day just lounging around and in the evening lots of family came over for a Christmas dessert gathering. It was a great day! The day after Christmas we drove up to Akron to visit with my Grandma Jo. We had a fun visit and dinner. Charlotte played with all of Great Gram's toys and some other things that were not toys! She had a lot of fun and the weather was great for driving which always makes the trip more enjoyable. All in all it was a wonderful Christmas filled with family, friends, gifts and many memories. It went by so fast it is only now as I reflect back that I realize how very blessed we are.