Vacation Day 43: Christmas Eve

This morning we woke up early so we could check out of our hotel and drive back to Bella Vista from Kansas City. It’s about a 3.5 hour drive, so we wented to get going, because it was Christmas Eve and we have Mass at 7pm.

We only made a couple short stops on the way home, then got back in the early afternoon. We waited at Vavo and Vavu’s house for the rest of the gang to come over. They were driving seperate with Tim and Heather. When they got to the house, they had a surprise with them! Auntie Dionne! It was such a nice surprise. All of the kids were here for Christmas now, except for Gina. We missed Gina’s presence, but were really happy to have so much of the family here for the holidays.

Welcome to Arkansas!

Back to Vavo and Vavu's house!



Uncle Tim playing puppets with the kids



Auntie Dionne!



We went to Mass at St. Bernard’s (that’s burrr-nerds, not ber-nards). The boys dressed in little matching Christmas tree sweaters, and Madison had on a cute little green velvet dress. The kids were so cute. After Mass, they were standing at the end of the pews giving “Christmas Hi-Fives” to people as they walked out. People seemed to get a kick out of that. :-)


The kids on the way to church

Jeremy was a tad crank-o, because he didn’t take his nap when he was suppsed to. Aiden was in a pretty good mood, excited for the upcoming Santa and presents.

We went over to Aunt Diana’s house for a Christmas Eve celebration with her side of the family for a couple of hours (Aunt Diana is Vavu’s sister). Her kids and their children were there. It was a very large group! The boys had a lot of fun playing, and we had a lot of fun eating! Yum!

At Aunt Diana's

Aiden with cousin Tanner

We came home in the evening and were pretty worn out! After the big drive in the morning, and all of the Christmas preparations, we were ready for bed.
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The best part of day 43 was spending Christmastime together with family.
The worst part of day 43 was probably the drive back from Kansas City. Too bad it’s not a tad closer.
What we learned on day 43 was a lot of people still go to Vigil Mass on Christmas, even though they could just go early on Christmas morning. The boys are starting to get the idea of Christmas! We also learned that Dionne was in town!
The weather on day 43 was very cold in Kansas City, so it felt nice and cozy in Bella Vista by comparison when we got home!