Kick-Off to Christmas

Guess who got married...! 

On the first Friday in December, Jen and Pete got married!  She was a beautiful bride, and it was truly one of the happiest, most fun weddings we have ever attended (and a little getaway for us, no less, as the boys got to spend a few days with Nana and Grandpa!). Their wedding was in Watkins Glen, NY, which is right on Lake Seneca, the largest of the Finger Lakes-- and right in the heart of NY wine country.

Jen and Jen- we've been friends since we were Liam's age!

Pete, Jen, Jen, and Anthony

After an awesome couple of days celebrating with Jen and Pete at the Harbor Hotel, it was time to head to York to see the boys and celebrate Christmas with Nana and Grandpa.  With all of our holiday travel schedules, this would be the only time we'd all be together until after the new year!  We took a short detour through my old hometown of Muncy, and then reunited with Liam and Joergen, who were busy helping Grandpa with yard work, happy as could be!

Before dinner, we decided to squeeze in a visit to Rocky Ridge State Park for their Christmas Magic light display... it's awesome!  Over 600,000 lights in the middle of the woods!

One highlight for sure was the train pavilion, with their seriously impressive train display.  Liam loved pitching pennies into the open box car as it passed him by.

Right outside the pavilion where Santa was rumored to be waiting, the boys jumped aboard his sleigh:

And sure enough, there inside was Santa himself.  This picture makes me laugh... it just captures my boys perfectly when it comes to their approach to strangers!

Back at home, we helped Nana and Grandpa trim their tree.

Joergen was just taken with Nana's little figure of Santa kneeling before baby Jesus in the manger.  He quietly whispered, "Eenta.  Baby Deeeeesus."

On Sunday morning, we cranked up the Harry Connick Jr. Christmas album and exchanged gifts with Nana and Grandpa.  Liam was so excited about his cool new snowboots!

As for Joergen, his favorite has to be this hammer and peg set, which creates an awful lot of racket and just never gets old!

Although it was still over two weeks until Christmas, that weekend definitely got us in the Christmas spirit.  We can't thank Nana and Grandpa enough for taking great care of our boys and hosting a terrific holiday weekend!