The rest of Christmas....

I fell off the blogging wagon.....I did.  We really did have a great rest of Advent though.  On the 19th day of Advent Marshall and I flew to Massachusetts to join Will and Josie.  And I have to brag.  My children are amazing travelers.  Whenever we talk about our trips, inevitably people ask, "How are the flights with the kids?"  Honestly, I don't even think about it now.  They read, they watch movies, we eat snacks.....they get bored, I get bored, but it's not a crisis.  It just is. And then we watch another show.  (Because screen time rules don't apply when you are on an airplane.)

Marshall always likes to read the safety guide thoroughly.

Happy and excited travelers!

Look what Marshall noticed on our engine.  Rolls Royce....traveling in style!

When we got to Massachusetts, we got haircuts the very first day.  (Norwegian haircuts, while stylish, are incredibly expensive.)

And we met up with my cousin Sarah, Brett, Jonas, and new baby Lillian.  I love holding newborn babies! (I also like to pretend I am the baby whisperer when it comes to new babies.  However, that's easy when you can give them back the minute they get fussy.)

And we also got to see Nick and Lori.  (What kind of strange people wear hats like that to a restaurant? I am totally surprised we are friends with them.)

We did lots of fun stuff like:

• Read Dad and Uncle Chris's old Encyclopedia Brown books

• Hike to Joe's Rock with Nana and Papa 

• Go to Sean's Super Hero Birthday Party with the children of my friends from high school.  Old friends, new friends.....brilliant! (And delightfully fun chaos because while the first generation of friends was merely 5 girls, the second generation is 9 boys and 2 girls.)

• Make lots and lots of food, including lobster and scallop bisque for Christmas Eve.  (I love my cooking lobster from scratch husband!)

• Use the aforementioned lobster to scare the patooty out of 4 people playing Trouble

(We actually dropped it right in the middle of the game playing circle, thus Josie's fearful reaction.  We are cruel, cruel parents.  And slightly inhumane lobster eaters.)

But of course, on Christmas Eve, we went to church, ate a FABULOUS dinner of seafood, and read "The Night Before Christmas" popup book, per our family tradition.

And left cookies and milk for Santa and a carrot for the reindeer.

And Christmas morning was full of joy!  

Opening stockings on Nana and Papa's bed.  (A Roberts' family tradition.)

"Hey look! Santa ate the cookies and wrote us a letter!"

This is the moment right after Josie and Marshall exchanged the presents they had bought each other.  They were so excited to give them and to give their daddy the present they bought him together.  (It's the Alligator Chopper, famous from the video for the Alligator Chopper playing continuously at Clas Ohlsen.  They knew it was the perfect gift for Dad. :))

Opening the scarves my grandmother knit all four of us and reading about the significance of the different pins she put on them.

It was a wonderful day!  (Whew, now the blogging pressure is off. :))