The Trolingers' Christmas

After we had finished up at the Drexler house, we headed down to celebrate Christmas at the Trolingers. Thankfully our parents only live about 30min from each other, so we were able to make the drive a quick one. We were the first ones there, followed closely by Pete's sister Jill and her husband and 2 boys, who drove down from Chicago that afternoon. Then Pete's brother Andy and his wife and little girl came over. It was the first time we had seen Andy since he got back from Iraq at the beginning of the month, so it was really good to see him and his family back together again. :-) Pete's Uncle Scott stopped by as well as his Uncle Tom, so we started opening presents. It was hard holding the kids back while we were waiting for everyone to arrive. Keeping kids from opening a present is nearly impossible, but they managed to make it - just barely!! I do believe Livie ripped a corner off one of her packages and Noah was threatened more than once to "Put the present down!". ;-) Madie tried to get Ty and Olivia to meditate with her to pass the time, but they couldn't "clear their minds" from present opening, so that plan failed.



Allyssa and Auntie Jill were hanging out while the rest of us were filing into the living room.

Nana helped little Ally open up a couple of her presents while her mommy Francy looked on. This was the first year Ally was really able to understand what presents were all about. She was only a couple months old at Christmas last year.

Uncle Andy and Aunt Francy spoiled our kids rotten and got them each a couple things despite not having drawn their names for the exchange. My kids weren't complaining though. ;-) They got Livie a froggy blanket and pillow and a little stuffed dinosaur.

Allyssa drew Madie's name and got her a big High School Musical set of school supplies. She LOVED it!!!!!

When Nana asked Noah what he wanted her to make him for Christmas, he thought about it and said, "I want a black blanket". Well, Nana gave him his black blanket and boy was he excited!! She even had her friend Belinda use her fancy sewing machine to embroider his name on it. So, not only did he get to have his favorite color black, he got to have his second favorite color yellow too!!! He's slept with it every night since. :-)

I was in charge of watching the gift opening, because I had to make mental notes of who got who what, so when thank you card time rolled around, I would have some idea of what to have them write! So, I watched as Pete helped the kids open their stuff.

This is Allyssa enjoying Christmas with her daddy Andy. :-) She missed him a lot while he was away.

Ty got a GameBoy for Christmas, just like his brother Trevor has at home, so they sat contently by their daddy Adam and played while the rest of us finished opening our presents. :-)

After all that was said and done, we had a delicious meal of ham and potatoes. YUM! I never get to eat ham, because Pete doesn't like it, so I was very excited! It was a busy, exciting day for the kids and by the time dinner was finished, they were getting pretty crabby. But, we weren't done yet! Andy's a Christmas baby, so we celebrated his birthday with an ice cream cake after dinner was over. I think the kids eat ate a small piece before we made them head up to bed. It was a jam-packed, fun day and they got spoiled rotten by not only us, but their entire extended family. And, we still had Livie's birthday to come......