Christmas week recap

We've returned from Dixon and have finished putting all the Christmas decorations away. Although the last week was extremely hectic, and included the funeral of my grandmother, we still enjoyed being able to visit with all of our family. The funeral was very nice - and very well-planned by Amy. It was truly a celebration of Mother Dot's life.

Here are the highlights from the rest of the week:

On Tuesday night, the Hobbs family arrived. We went over to Gran's house for dinner, and she pulled out a huge trunk full of old doll clothes from when she and her sisters were young. The girls had a lot of fun playing in them, and both Erin and I took a bag full of doll clothes home for the girls.







The next morning, we got the news that Mother Dot had passed away. Aunt Erin and Uncle Brad went to help Granddad with some of those details, and Brooke stayed at our house to play. The girls were at the height of their anti-sharing mode, and we even had to take the clothes off of their identical dolls so they wouldn't be able to tell one from the other. But, we still had a lot of fun playing with Cousin Brooke!



That evening, Aunt Amy and Neal arrived, and we had our Christmas dinner and exchanged gifts at Gran's house.

Both girls loved seeing all their out-of-town relatives. Here's Elizabeth sitting with Aunt Amy:



And, here's Uncle Brad receiving a rare treat - a visit from both girls at once!



Of course, with two toddlers together, life is never boring. Here's an example of the cousin-ly love that was being spread around:



Yes, that is a snarl on Elizabeth's face, but in all fairness, here's what Brooke was doing right before that:



For some reason, my mom said that really reminded her of me and Amy when we were younger!

Then, it was on to the presents. The girls really enjoyed their "elf" roles and distributed (and opened) presents with much delight.





Afterward, they even played together peacefully:



Of course, neither one knew the other one was on the opposite side of the barn! :)

The next morning, Erin and Brad had to go shopping for funeral clothes, so the rest of us loaded up the girls and headed down to the Lexington Children's Museum. They had an absolute ball! Unfortunately, I accidentally left my camera in the car that morning, so you'll just have to take my word for it! They had several exhibits geared just for toddlers. The girls particularly loved splashing and playing in the water exhibit and playing in the bubble room. I think we're going to have to make that a regular activity from now on!

That evening, Granddad and Granny Pat came over for another round of Christmas dinner and presents.







Then, we settled down to family business. We put together a beautiful biography/program to be distributed at Mother Dot's visitations and funeral, which kept me and David up late into the night. Friday morning, we packed the cars (no easy task with a toddler in tow!), loaded everyone up, and headed to Western Kentucky. We got to the hotel with just enough time to change and head to the first visitation. The turnout was wonderful - our grandparents had affected so many people in the community, and their outpouring of love and affection was a true demonstration of that. They had filled the house with food before we arrived, and the church also prepared a fabulous potluck dinner for everyone following the funeral. Add that to the end of the holiday season, and it's definitely time for a new workout program! We also really enjoyed visiting with our extended family members and reminiscing about our grandparents. All in all, it went as well as it possibly could.

Here's a picture of our immediate family after the funeral:



And one with all of our extended family members - except for Elizabeth, who was crawling away!