We got to Maryland late at night, and spent our first day sort of lazily, playing with the girls and prepping for the weekend with a trip to Aldi.
That evening, we went into DC and toured the Museum of the Bible.
We also walked over to the National Christmas Tree on the mall. I've never seen it before and it was fun and festive.
The next day was spent with more playing. Tuck became a favorite, and several of the girls asked if they come come live at "Tuck's House".
Tuck was NOT a fan of their puppy. Too much energy for our little only child dog. This summed up the relationship.
We went out shopping for each other (I shopped for Trent, Erin shopped for Carson, Carson shopped for Erin, and Trent shopped for me) and divided up. Erin and I took Brooklyn and Zariah, and Carson and Trent took Laela, Kennedy and Zariah.
We returned to this little loving Christmas display set up for Tuck.
And that evening, we watched a cheesy Christmas movie.
Sunday morning, we went to the dog park. Since it was Christmas Eve, their church had decided to only have a Christmas Eve evening service, so we had a relaxing day all together.
Trent and Erin had nursery duty, and most of the girls went with them, but Zariah and Kiara decided to go with Uncle Carson and Aunt Lindsay to the candlelight service, and were VERY excited about the candles. They were so serious and focused when the time came to light them. I on the other hand was a little worried that someone would light themselves on fire - thankfully nothing happened.
We watched a Christmas movie before bed.
And introduced the girls to sparkling grape juice in fancy flutes.
Santa and his elves got to work that evening after the girls were in bed, setting up bikes and filling stockings.
Christmas morning was fun! On our shopping trips, they'd bought things to fill up stockings for Carson and I too, which I thought was really sweet.
(A.L. for Aunt Lindsay)
And I got a winning scratch off ticket!
Christmas with kids is very fun.
And there's so much set up to do afterward!
A family picture
We'd planned to leave the day after Christmas, but we decided to hit the road on Christmas evening instead, so that our 14 hour drive wasn't so long. We were given this sign with love from Zariah.
We stayed at a hotel in North Carolina, and discovered that the only restaurant open was Waffle House. So I enjoyed a fancy Waffle House salad and Carson had a burger. Tuck was confused by the whole set up.
We got up at 4am to finish our drive south and beat the traffic. I-95 is only two lanes in South Carolina and we wanted to beat the bottleneck, so we did!
Tuck had a bathroom accident, so here he is, getting wiped. Parenthood prep, right here.
We got home in the early afternoon and were able to unpack and rest before work the next day! It was a fun time in Maryland and I'm glad we got to be with family!
