Well, our holiday fun didn't end just with Christmas. Devin and Sarah were kind enough to invite us all (well, at least I think they invited us-- we may have just converged upon their townhouse) up in Richmond, VA. Whitney, the kids, and I drove up Thursday morning, while Jon had to stay and work Friday morning before taking Amtrak up and joining us that night.
After coming to a complete and total standstill on I-95 for about 45 minutes just outside of Petersburg, VA for no apparent reason, we finally made it to our final destination and immediately headed back out to look at lights on the Tacky Lights Tour.
We were happy to be reunited with everyone, especially cousins Eva and Sophie! It was also nice to finally be out of the car and walk around a bit!
The Tacky Lights Tour is a Richmond tradition-- where dozens of houses go all out and get covered in Christmas lights and over-the-top holiday decorations. They're required to have a minimum of 40,000 lights to even make it on the list. CrAzY!
These houses are really, really amazing. My kids could have spent hours looking at all of the lights. You can see them from several blocks away because they're so bright. Their power bills for the month must be outrageous. What a headache to have to put up and take down all those lights though!
Friday we decided to head out of the house and pick up lunch at Q Barbecue nearby. My dad and Taylor are suckers for BBQ pork, so anytime they're in the South they need to take advantage.
Then we headed over to a local ice skating rink. My kids have never ice skated, but they were both excited to try, and after a few slips and falls and attempts to find their balance, they both really, really liked it. Lucy did awesome! Towards the end she even let go and tried to skate all by herself.
Zach had a blast! Thankfully my Dad, Devin, Taylor, and Whitney skated so that I could stay out and watch Leah. They were really patient to help my kids skate very slooooowly around the rink.
Zach mostly liked to coast while Devin and my Dad pulled him along "really fast." He'd come over to me and ask, "Did you see how fast I went?" He loved it.
Hanging out and watching the skaters. Too bad we missed Taylor's big fall about 20 minutes after this picture was taken, ha, ha! That night after I picked up Jon, we did a fun little cooking competition for dinner based on "Chopped." Unfortunately my dessert was a flop (my basket contained coconut milk, graham cracker crust, apples, and peppermint chocolate covered pretzels), but everything else was really delicious.
Saturday morning the girls and Grandpa went to see a matinee of "Frozen" which was really, really good. Lucy had already seen it, but we loved the music!
That night the adults hired a babysitter for the little kids, and headed to dinner at a nice Italian restaurant. After watching some football and playing Trivial Pursuit, we headed to bed and woke up the next morning, loaded up the car, and headed back down to North Carolina Sunday afternoon.
Monday (December 30th) was our 9th wedding anniversary--hooray!--so we spent the day celebrating by going to the gym, running errands, taking the kids to get their teeth cleaned at the dentist, and going to bed early, ha, ha! I guess that's what happens when you're an old married couple. Tuesday morning I headed up to Raleigh to pick up Whitney (she'd stayed an extra day in Richmond, then got dropped off at a hotel while my parents and Taylor flew out of RDU) to go shopping! This was MY Christmas present from Jon-- a day of shopping at the outlet malls totally kid-free. It was H-E-A-V-E-N. We did some power shopping at the Tanger outlets and then got a late lunch at the Cheesecake Factory in Durham. We made it home just in time to throw together some yummy appetizers for our New Year's party that night.
Jon did great all day with the kids by himself, but I think he was glad when we made it home. The kids were so happy to see Whitney again! We watched a couple of movies, played Bohnanza, and while Zach crashed around 9 p.m., Lucy made it all the way to about 11 p.m., and the rest of us miraculously stayed up until midnight.
Whitney made us some amazing cinnamon rolls for New Year's breakfast, and then I caught the cleaning bug-- trying to put all of our Christmas decorations away and get the house put back together! That night Whitney babysat so Jon and I could go see the new Hobbit movie.
Thursday morning we woke up to pouring rain, so Whitney and I took the kids to the Children's Museum in Rockingham, which is always a lot of fun. Leah even had a blast and played and played way past her nap time. She is a wild little thing! I was glad to have Whitney there to keep an eye on hour while I watched the other two.
Zach-O loved the fire truck and getting to wear the fireman's outfit. He is such a funny little guy-- he cracks us up with his quirky little personality.
As soon as we got back in the car, Leah was down for the count. We headed over to Panera and got lunch to go and relaxed back at home. We spent the rest of Friday and Saturday hanging out at home, working out at the gym, going swimming, eating dinner at Mellow Mushroom, and going shopping. 
Even though we had Whitney for a whole extra week, it still wasn't long enough. My kids absolutely adore her-- and probably to her dismay, they follow her around and bug her and ask her to play every waking moment. She is such a nice Auntie and a calming, happy presence in our home! We miss her so much already. Having her visit was the absolute best way to start our new year and a great kick-off to 2014!
