Napa

To end our amazing time in KY, my family went out to eat at one of my favorite restaurants in Louisville, Napa River Grill. Deliciousness. We had a sitter, so it was great to have some alone adult time-which is oh so rare these days ;)

Unexpected...

...Family Reunion. I was out to eat with one of my best high school friend's when I got a call from my Mom telling me to come to stop by the Dealership when I was finished with lunch. My Dad's Uncle and cousin had driven in from Ohio to buy a new truck and I hadn't seen them in years. They are Bachman's as well and own an apple orchard/farm in Ohio, which is another place that brings back great memories from my younger years. We had a quick but sweet mini-family reunion right in the middle of the Dealership.

Quick Visit...

...to see our precious Nana who is pretty sick herself. She lives in WV but is in the final stages of dementia, so we just had to go see her as we never know when might be our last visit. My parents, sister, Jordan and I drove up and back the same day, but it was so worth it. Paul stayed back in KY and watched Micah for me, which was a huge blessing-I'm not sure how he would have done.

I'm extremely thankful that we had a couple of great hours with Nana. You never know when she will sleep or be awake. Luckily she was wide awake when we got there and enjoyed looking at pictures and hearing stories from us. She understands everything, but cannot talk and that absolutely breaks my heart. It's hard to see someone you love so sick.

My crazy Mom decided to do a snow angel on their back porch.

Four generations. And excuse the little hands covering JK's face...someone was getting sleepy :)

Nana needed a nap, so we left her house and headed over to visit with my cousins, Aunt, and Uncle. We don't get to see each other as often as we'd like, so it's always great to catch up. It was well worth the day trip to drive to see family-I wish we could do it more often!

Beanies

Lottie and Granddaddy bought these adorable beanies for their two youngest grandbabies. I just thought they were so cute, so of course I had to show them off.

I might as well share a few other pictures from our time together too:
These two are Trouble with a capital "T"

Christmas Morning

There is something special about waking up on Christmas morning in the house you grew up in. I have so many wonderful memories in this house and some of my favorites are definitely Christmas memories. My sisters and I would all sleep in the same bed on Christmas Eve and stay up playing cards and other games until we they could finally go to sleep. As a child, I could NEVER sleep on Christmas Eve-it was seriously the longgggggest night ever for me...especially, watching my two sisters snoozing away next to me. I couldn't wait for them to wake up in the morning so we could play more games until our parents told us it was okay to come out of our rooms. Thankfully, I no longer have sleepless nights on Christmas Eve-I guess I'm getting old ;)

I was also excited to be home because this was the first actual Christmas morning that Paul had ever spent with my family. When we dated in high school and college, he always came over and spent Christmas afternoon with us. Since being married we've been in NC and overseas. So, this year I enjoyed allowing him to see some my family's Christmas traditions.

Of course we all were looking forward to seeing the kids reactions (mainly Micah's) Christmas morning, and they didn't let us down. They loved all their gifts and immediately played with everything. We had a wonderful morning day together as a family opening gifts and hanging out. Once again, we were thankful to have my Grandma, Aunt, Uncle and some of Paul's family join us that evening for dinner.

MERRY CHRISTMAS to you!

Christmas Eve at Home

We had a low key Christmas Eve, which was great and needed. We went to church, had family over for dinner, and then played games. I hadn't been "home" (at my parents house) for Christmas day since 2005, yes, FIVE YEARS, so it was just so refreshing to be with my family. Paul's family also joined us, so it was great being able to celebrate our Savior's birth with both families. There is just something special about being "Home, Sweet Home."

So excited about these two having TWIN girls this spring!!

Cooking with Love

Over Christmas my Mom surprised us with vintage aprons from her Mom, Nana. It was really special to receive these since my Grandpa passed away this fall and now Nana is really sick. We of course had to put them to use, so enjoyed some girl time in the kitchen making our traditional "Buckeyes" and cookies :)

Akin Christmas

= Sickness. It was great being with all the Akin's, but unfortunately we only had one day when we were all together and Micah was sick with a bad cold. We were able to have a good day together with delicious food, gifts, and family. But at the end the night Micah worked himself up into such a bad cough that he ended up throwing up, so we quickly headed home...not fun. Thankfully, this was the only time this happened while we were in Louisville.

Santa's Lap

Once we got to Louisville, we decided to take a little visit to see Santa. GiGi, Poppi, and Aunt Blair joined us and we were surprised to see that there was NO line. Perfect. Micah had seen Santa as a baby in 2008 in Kenya...

...but we were unable to give him a visit in '09 while in Jordan because he just wasn't anywhere to be found.

This year it was fun to see his little face be so excited to meet Santa. And of course, he asked Santa for something completely different than anything that Mommy and Daddy had heard of.

Throwing coins in the fountain. Micah was so amused.