More Christmas weekend visitors!

On Saturday, while Rob and Jess were still here, my aunts and cousins visited from Atlanta.

First, the kids had to show off their Christmas gifts.

And, everyone played for a while.

Then, the kids opened new gifts! Thank you!!

Here are Chiara and Aunt Jess enjoying her new gift.

Then, Matteo had to teach everyone how to play the Wii :) He's an expert!

The girls enjoyed playing Sudoku!

When my aunts and cousins had to leave to get back to Atlanta, we realized how nice the weather was outside! So, we played outside for a while!

It was a fun weekend!! On Sunday after Mass, we enjoyed a quiet afternoon resting from all the weekend excitement!

Uncle Rob and Aunt Jess visit!

Uncle Rob had to work on Christmas day, so he and Aunt Jessica couldn't start their drive down to GA until he got off work that evening. They arrived after we were all in bed! They were able to stay Friday and Saturday but they had to leave early Sunday morning.





They brought lots of fun Christmas gifts!



Some of their gifts were from their trip to Hawaii !! The girls got necklaces and flowers for their hair.



Jessica even managed to put one in Chiara's hair!




Matteo got a sea turtle necklace.

Every Christmas, Grandma gets a new puzzle as a gift. This one only took 2 days to finish. Dany and Ginny left a few pieces for Grandma to complete when she got home Friday afternoon :)

When Grandma got home from work on Friday, Chiara helped her open her gifts from Rob and Jess. Chiara insists on helping everyone with their presents! And, she's sure that scissors are necessary for the job!

Ginny was here on Friday, too, to visit with Rob and Jess. Chiara helped with her gift, too :)

But, Rob, you have to come back!!! I didn't get any pictures of you with the kids!!!! What will I put on next year's photo calendar ???

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas morning was a wild time of gift-opening!
Here are the kids before the madness began :)





This doll was the one thing Cati asked for this year.


Here is Cati's gift from the Arcara's in Italy.


And Maria got Aesop's Fables in Italian :)



Matteo opened everything as fast as he could :)

So, he got to start playing pretty quickly.


Diving into the stockings...




Chiara slept in a bit, so she got a late start.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, we went to Mass. Here are the kids in their new Christmas dresses made my Aunt Ginny. Don't worry - it was plenty warm for those short sleeves!





And here is a family picture.



After Mass, we always go to my grandmother's house for dinner.
Here are the kids with my mom waiting for dinner to be ready!



My grandmother always likes to open her gifts after dinner on Christmas Eve.

Cookie-making with Aunt Pamela!

Yesterday, we visited Pamela (Cati's godmother) and her family for a day of cookie baking and decorating!

Even Dany helped! And those of you who know him KNOW that he doesn't usually participate in messy activities :)

We had a little bit of flour on our clothes when we were done :)

It was a fun day!

Weekend before Christmas!

On Saturday, we got to relax at home with Grandma and Pipa.

The girls played paper dolls with Grandma for a while on Saturday afternoon. Paper dolls have always been one of her favorite things, so she loves have granddaughters to play with!



On Sunday, Ginny came to visit. She helped Maria put ribbons on her gifts.


Cati and Grandma cleaned some silver. Some might think this was work, but Cati thought it was a lot of fun!



And, don't you just love it when you send the kids upstairs to get ready for bed, and when you go up to check on them, you find this:

A Couple of Relaxing Days

On Thursday and Friday, we stayed around Grandma's house, relaxed, and did some work.

Maria is working on a PA lapbook. One of the PA state homeschool credits is that we must do a unit of PA history, so that's why we're doing this. We're working on it now so that we won't have to take time away from our usual school work. This also lets these days count toward our 180 required days that we must log. I'm try to get these in before the baby comes at the beginning of May.



Cati wanted her own lapbook to do, so she's working on one about the book "Madeline." She loves cutting and coloring, so she loves having this project to work on.



Matteo and Chiara worked on a puzzle.




And, Chiara decided to help me sweep the floors :)