Christmas in Houston

The weekend before Christmas we went to Houston to celebrate Christmas with Dave's dad's extended family. This is something that we have done almost every year and we always have a lot of fun.
James' first time on a real swing (instead of a baby swing). Elizabeth almost immediately started playing with her cousin Dutch. Dutch is Dave's cousin's son. Dutch and Elizabeth spent most of the evening playing with each other. It was fun to watch. Dave is one of 17 grandchildren on his dad's side and grew up very close to his cousins. It's neat to see the next generation starting to form relationships. Elizabeth and Dutch are the oldest of the 5 great-grandchildren. Dave's Grandpa has passed away and his Grandma wasn't able to be with us for Christmas, but I know that they would both love to see their great-grandkids playing together.

Every year Santa (in the form of Dave's uncle) comes to Christmas. Elizabeth is TERRIFIED of Santa, as she is with anyone in just about any kind of costume. We tried to prepare her for it and I even explained that it was Uncle Raymond dressed up as Santa. But, she still totally freaked out when he got there.

Here's a picture of how she spent most of the time that Santa was there - in her Daddy's lap in the other room.

Or in her Aunt Ali's lap. Super cute picture if only Elizabeth didn't look so pathetic.

We tried to get James to sit in Santa's lap, but he wasn't too sure. He would let me get close enough to get a family (minus one) picture with Santa.

Poppy & Grandma with Santa.

Grandma, Elizabeth, & Dave.

The 4 brothers - Uncle Bernard, Uncle Mark, Uncle Raymond aka Santa, & Poppy aka Mike.

We were able to coax Elizabeth out of the other room once Santa left and there were presents to be opened. Dave's aunts, uncles, and cousins are always very generous. The kids had lots of fun opening presents.