The Donoghue Family: Merry Christmas!

What a fun Christmas season we had! We managed to squeeze a lot of things into a few days!

Our happy family

On the girls' last day of school, Jamie helped out with Maggie's class party, and we both got to see Evie's preschool concert. Cute stuff!

Maggie's kindergarten class

Loved seeing our shy girl participating!

We went to Frankenmuth right before Christmas as always. We decided to do dinner at Bavarian Inn on the 23rd instead of lunch on Christmas Eve... and learned that it takes about twice as long! I think we'll go back to our usual schedule next year. I was pretty proud of the kiddos though, they made it through a vvvvery long dinner without much whining. It was great to have the entire Donoghue clan together.

The Donoghues

Proud grandparents

Going for a stroll across the bridge

My love

Our little family and Odglens stayed at Bavarian Inn for the night (also known as "the castle" to our kids), and had a really fun time swimming in the pool! I was so proud of Evie - as soon as her water wings were on, she just swam all around the big kid pool without any help! Did not expect that. Afterward we hit the arcade and then a little dancing in the lounge... I think we were all pooped by the end of the night!

Relaxing by the hot tub

Evie was not into this - just let me go!

On Christmas Eve we went to Bronner's with my side of the family, and the girls got to sit with Santa. Maggie asked for a fidget spinner and a special surprise (?), Evie shyly asked for a unicorn pillow and a toy house.

The big man

Very fidgety while asking for her toys

Trying to charm Santa

Maggie loved "taking care" of Sarah

The best we could do with five young kids

We drove home and then got ready for the children's mass at church. The girls were very well behaved, and the homily was mercifully short.

Wearing their "fancy coats"

Really wanted a picture by the unicorn

Christmas morning was just wonderful! So wonderful that we both failed to take photos of anything except the girls at the top of the stairs...

Can we go down now???

Jamie and I continued our tradition of homemade ornaments from one of our favorite shows of the year:

Holly's masterpiece - from Better Call Saul

Jamie's infinitely better and highly detailed masterpiece -
the mail cart from The Americans

We went to Grandma and Grandpa's around lunch time and had fun celebrating with everyone.

Baby V was a big fan of wrapping paper... specifically the taste

The cousins opening their big gift - ipads!

Later in the day we went to my cousin's house to visit with the Rabine family. All the cousins had a great time hanging together... Evie had reached her limit by the end of the night though and went into full meltdown mode.

Playing Pass the Parcel

We had the day after Christmas to recuperate, and boy did we need it!

The next day we went to my parents' house for our Christmas gathering. Proud to say that my name is finally on the back of the Foosball trophy thanks to my partner Bobby! Big day for us!