East Coast Christmas

Although we’ve settled in quite nicely in our new home in San Diego, we lived in Northern VA for our whole lives so I was so excited to head “home” for the holidays. It was great to get to spend some quality time with both our families and our friends. We planned it so we could be home for a good long time, work a little and not have to be rushed to see everyone that we miss so dearly.

We started our trip by heading down to North Carolina for Mike’s godparents daughter’s wedding. It was our first wedding since our own and I really enjoyed it. Diana actually read one of the readings that was read at our wedding and boy did that bring on the tears for me. It made me think of standing up there that day, in front of all of our loved ones, taking our vows...I was beyond excited for Stephen and Cari because I knew what an amazing night they had ahead of them. The wedding was a blast!

Ready for the wedding :)

Christmas Eve and Christmas at the McDermotts was a great time- very relaxed and cozy, spending a lot of time by the fire. In a McDermott tradition we made Krumcagga (sp??)- a Norwegian cookie that Diana’s mom and grandmother used to make. She actually still has the sheet of paper with the recipes handwritten from her grandmother. Very neat. Of course we all got wonderful gifts and the McDermotts were far too generous, as always!

The whole McDermott gang!

It was so nice to be back to celebrate Lily Peterson's first birthday! Here is our fake family photo with Lily as our prop baby! :)

We rang in the New Year with a close group of friends over at Jaime and Pat’s house. Thanks for hosting guys, it was exactly the type of NYE I was looking for! A little champagne, some cupcakes, Wii, and watching Jersey Shore...a great time! I can’t believe it was the end of a decade. I can’t wait for what the next decade may bring!

Next up was “Valluzzomas”, or Valluzzo Christmas. It was quite entertaining having all the little ones together, and with Abby mobile now too- it was pretty much utter ciaos (in a good way.) The 3 older girls were hilarious wearing their high heels and switching out dress up outfits everyday. Mike and I really loved the time we got to spend with our siblings drinking, eating and testing our trivia knowledge at Time’s Up. Thank you to my parents for also being far too generous!!

Here's some pictures of my favorite girls:

Abby aka the drunken sailor- she is still very wobbly on her feet! She is super tough, especially when her big sister is too rough with her!

Josie wearing the Tinkerbell costume over her footie PJS. So cute.

Izzie playing when we went to the Sports Bounce

Love that they are making sweet music together. This was a few minutes before Josie shut Izzie's fingers in the piano.

Emmabelle was VERY excited for present time!!!