Christmas in Spain 2012

This was a very special Christmas, being so far away from home...my parents, brother, sister in law, nieces, sister and now fiance came to visit!  An adventure would be an understatement for this 2 weeks, filled with lots of laughter!  We didn't allow anyone to rest, Nina and Poppop, Uncle Brian, Aunt Katherine, Elisabeth and Abby arrived on Brian's birthday.  After dinner and cake we were off to one of Rota's special events, The Polar Express!  Little Abby fell asleep while we waited for our ride, so went home early!  The other kids rode the Polar Express and sang songs!  Nina bought the kids matching pjs for the special event!  Fun for the first night!



Abby loves her Nina!



Girls with their golden tickets!



A day into Rota, playing on the beach and enjoying the sunshine!  Time at home playing with cousins, playing Sequence while eating lunch!  Beautiful sunset on the way to our favorite restaurant, Blanco Paloma.  A Sunday afternoon to visit Arcos de la Frontera!  The kids enjoyed the park in Arcos more than walking through town, they had a blast.  Abby loves Nina, but she also loves her cousin Shawn! 



All 5 kids, looking and smiling at the camera, a miracle!

 

Cousin love!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day...all in the same place...wonderful!  All the girls, including Alyssa wore pretty dresses to church on Christmas Eve.  Christmas morning Santa came and all the kids were excited.   They played games and ran around in their pjs most of the day!  So nice to have them here.

All the excitement wore poor Poppop out!

Aunt Sheila and Tom arrived the day after Christmas...welcome to our craziness!  And once again, no rest for the tired...next day we head to Gibralter too see Africa and the Barbery Apes!  Our driver had a fun way to interact with the Apes, he pretended to put food in Shawn's pocket, so the Ape was very busy trying to find food from Shawn! 

The day after Sheila and Tom took off to enjoy a little more of Spain, and Tom had a surprise for all of us!  In Cordoba, Tom asked Sheila to marry him, and she said yes!  Congrats to my sister and Tom, welcome to our crazy family Tom!  I took Brian and Katherine and the kids to Cadiz for a few hours.  We climbed the steps in the tower of the Cathedral and enjoyed the open market and had lunch!  The kids rested enough on the way home in the car that we were able to enjoy a beautiful December late afternoon walk and play at the beach close to our house!  The only reason Uncle Brian didn't end up all the way in the water was because he had electronics in his pockets, otherwise he would have gone for a swim.  The kids had a blast, playing in the sand and eventually the water!  We had to call Nina to get a ride home since they were all wet and cold as the sun set while we enjoyed it all! 

Uncle Brian enjoying the beach, enjoying a moment of peace and quiet!

Not sure who is having more fun, the girls or Brian!  I love this!

The plan for the next day was everyone to Sevilla to meet up with Sheila and Tom, but we woke up to sick kiddos.  Change of plans, I got to go to Sevilla with Nina and Poppop, without kids, it was a very nice treat for me!  Best of all was of course checking out the new ring on Sheila's finger!  We enjoyed a nice day in Sevilla!  Everyone's last day we just spent time at home and playing in the park!