House Lewis Family: Christmas in Alaska Part 1

We packed our bags, checked them, double checked them and took off for Alaska. It was a whirlwind of preparation. Getting presents put together, packing, taking care of a new baby, and making the heart wrenching decision to have our dog go live with new owners (which ended up falling through at the last minute). We were tired before the trip began!

We were so very thankful to have Alex and Kellie traveling with us. I'm really not sure that we could have done it without them! They sat across the aisle from us with Grayson. Kellie had some activities planned for him, I'd stocked his backpack with books and snacks, and we had a movie on the ipad for him. He did great, and Makenna was a champ! She just ate, slept, and hung out in my arms.

We also got to fly on the new Dreamliner which was fun.

We took a family outing to a nursery to find our family ornament for the year. Grayson loved this life size nativity.

Playing at the nursery.

Sweet girl is so close to rolling over!

Having tea with Grandma and Auntie Kellie.

The banister is nearly full! We're going to need to smush the stockings together now that we're adding kids to the family.

We took the kids to go see Santa. They were dressed up and so adorable. Grayson had been talking about seeing Santa, but when it came time to sit on his lap...he was nervous and didn't want to do it. We hung around for awhile, and eventually G decided he wanted to meet Mr. C. The picture turned out great, but I forgot it in Alaska so I'll have to post it later.

We went to church on Christmas Eve. It was a beautiful candlelit service. Makenna slept through most of it, but Grayson was a wild child. There was no childcare, so Joan took him out into the foyer to run around. And run he did! She said he never stopped! They have a huge slide at the entrance of the children's area, and Alex took Grayson to it. We didn't think he'd want to come down on his own, but we were surprised when we saw him come flying down. He loved it! In fact he loved it so much that it was nearly impossible to get him to leave which resulted in no family picture at church.

That night we had a surprise guest...Santa!

He explained to Grayson that he was very busy, but wanted to make a special stop to say merry Christmas to him. He also brought G a gift, bath crayons, to open early. Grayson was very nervous at first and wanted to be held, but he warmed up to Santa and was sitting on his lap and having a great conversation in no time.

We had some sweet time together with just our little family reading the nativity story from Grayson's Jesus Bible. It is so special that Grayson knows the entire story and the real reason we're celebrating. We talked a lot this month about Santa bringing gifts because we never want to forget the gift of Jesus. Our most special gift of all.

We had a gingerbread house decorating contest on Christmas Eve night. We were in teams, and Grayson was on a team with his Grandpa. They had trouble decorating because every piece of candy Stan would put on the house, Grayson would try to eat it!

Alex and Kellie focused on the big move to the judges table.

Adam and I were a team, and our house is the one with the black roof. We had gummy bears around a tea light fire inside, Mortimor the Mouse out front and wreaths on the front. It was a sure winner...we found out later that it was a rigged contest and we didn't win! Oh well, we all had a lot of fun.

Daddy/daughter time

The next morning I got up with Makenna in the early morning, and then we ended up having to wake up Grayson once everyone else was awake before him. I think this will be the last year that we'll need to do that!