We started off our Christmas celebrations with Aaron's side of the family the weekend before Christmas. Since Aaron's brothers have to drive in and sleep over at Aaron's parents house, we thought we would pack up and do the the same. They only live 15 minutes from us, but it's fun to all wake up together and stay up late together.

The weekend all started with a ride on the North Pole Flyer run by the Austin Steam Train Association in Cedar Park. It was set up to mimic the Polar Express. The kids were very, very excited, especially Aaris. It was fun to be with the family, but I think we all agreed that the train engineers and coordinators had an off night. They departed 45 minutes late and then had a sudden unplanned stop after about 10 minutes into the trip. They kids got a little cranky, but most of the time kept occupied singing, getting tickled, eating the cookie treats they handed out, blowing the train whistle toys Santa handed out, and looking out the windows. And, somehow, I became the VIP for all the kids. At one point I had 3 on me at the same time. My adorable niece, Cosette, really took to me this visit. It was fun to have her love on me so much. I hope I can always be a source of special love to her

The rest of the weekend was filled with yummy food that Aaron's mom prepared. There was also lots of movie watching...a Dennington boy favorite activity. On Sunday evening we all opened our presents to each other. We let the kids open all of their presents first so they could not have to be told to wait to play with them. All the men around were very handy since there ended up being assembly required on two of the big presents. Aaris got a huge Loving Family doll house and Titus got a Black-n-Decker tool workbench from Aaron's parents. After the kids played a little and then got to bed, us grown-ups opened our presents to each other. It was a really fun time