Christmas and New Year in Snapshots

After a long and tiring fall term, we were READY for some down time. Like REALLY ready.

Leading up to Christmas we had the usual festivities:

Decorating the tree - the girls got to have it in their room this year

Ellie as a star in her school program

Ellie as an angel in our church's carol service 

LTS Christmas Dinner

Baby socializing at the LTS Christmas Dinner 

And, of course, a proper Christmas sweater to don at all aforementioned events :)

And after enjoying the craziness and sweet moments that December can bring, we packed up everything...

... the only person with leg room was Robert...

...and retreated to Oxford. We stayed there for 2 FULL WEEKS.

People, if you can't be with your beloved extended family for Christmas, GO TO OXFORD!

Or some other nice place where you can spread out, relax, eat breakfast until lunch rolls around, take in some sights here and there, and just be refreshed with your sweet family (who has just been through an amazing but exhausting 4 months of seminary).

We had a back yard...

... and our own "rooms"! Samantha amazingly slept through the night several times while we were there - this girl wakes up if we even change positions in the night in London!

We worshipped at St. Ebbes while we stayed in Oxford

We ate and relaxed and played around this table a lot

We enjoyed the wonderful company of our friends, the Lyells, leading up to Christmas Eve (please excuse the crazy camera flash eyes)

There was lots of nice park time with all the kiddos

We opened our traditional ONE gift on Christmas Eve

 And then it was the Big Day...

We read about Jesus' birth and prayed...

...then walked down the steps in eager anticipation!

Let the frenzy begin...

Our lovely friend, Cassie, joined us Christmas Eve and spent Christmas with us!

Too much fun!

We made it through about half of our gifts before we got ready and went to church.

It was, actually, our first Christmas DAY at church since most American churches have services on Christmas Eve and most English churches has services on Christmas Day 

Robert and Samantha after church

And then we ate our big Christmas Breakfast.

Cassie said she liked the grits :) 

And on to more gift opening...

We're pretty good at reenacting our surprised faces :)

Whew! Lots of fun, lots of gifts, lots and lots to be grateful for. The girl's big gift this year was scooters, so I'm pretty sure we took a post dinner walk/scoot around the block. And we all slept well that night.

On Boxing Day we braved the crowds and headed into the city for a little shopping and lunch. That night Cassie graciously watched all our little ones while Robert and I snuck in a long overdue date.

And then somehow it was the END of 2014! We enjoyed a quiet New Year's Eve. Well, I actually cheated and napped off and on until midnight and then perked up for the fireworks :) Which, by the way, are really amazing in London!

On New Year's Day, we ventured out into the Oxfordshire countryside to visit one of Robert's LTS classmates. After lunch we enjoyed a beautiful walk through their village.

Taking turns walking the (very sweet & obliging) dog was the highlight for Ellie & Meg.

We ended our time enjoying a nearby park.

The next day we packed up all of our treasures and headed back to the big city. We had been gone so long that there were some fun cards and gifts waiting for us on our return!

Picture from a sweet summer wedding we would have LOVED to attend

It might go down as one of the most unique and unconventional Christmas seasons we'll ever celebrate, which in many ways made it all the more special.