The second half of our Christmas trip was spent with Stephen's family.
We went to a family get together at the Lyon Ranch which is Stephen's Aunt's place.
It's a zoo.
No, literally.
They rescue exotic animals and take them to nursing homes and hospitals and such.
They have camels, lamas, emus, a donkey/zebra, all kinds of exotic birds, this fennec fox that Alice pet:
She also got to pet a porcupine and a huge serval.
I was a little nervous that the serval would eat Jane and so I didn't get a picture unfortunately.
It was fun to see everyone, lots of people I only met at our wedding.
Then there was Christmas at Great Grandma's with the cousins.
Trying to get a picture of 6 kids ages 7 and under was not easy, but this is what we got :)
Auntie Michelle.
Then it was Christmas at Nana and Papa Grande's.
As always, Alice blends right into the Edwards family.
I had to keep a close eye on her the day they left to make sure she didn't jump in the van with them!
Or get kidnapped by Auntie Michelle, there were many threats made.
Butterfly wings, fuzzy boots, tutus...I think they know Alice.
One of the most exciting presents was from Grandma Patti, a trip for all the girls (except Jane of course) to go to the San Francisco ballet's Nutcracker.
I knew about it long in advance but decided it was better not to tell Alice until the day before.
I should have waited longer.
All day, non stop, "Mommy, Alice go to The Nun-cracker!?" (yes she talks in the 3rd person)
"Yes Alice, tomorrow, not right now. When you wake up we will go to the Nutcracker."
Poor choice of words because she woke up at like 1 AM asking about the Nutcracker and I had to tell her "Alice, it's still dark out, not till it's light out."
So we got dressed up and bundled up and got on the BART to San Francisco.
Alice's cousin Avila is very seriously into ballet and is pretty much the 7 year old version of Alice and so the two were pretty inseparable.
Avila, Emma, Mae and Alice. It's so tragic we don't live closer.
Alice LOVED the Nutcracker! She was mesmerized the whole time. When the curtain went down at intermission she got upset and said "More Nun-cracker!"
I think her favorite was the ribbon dancers, which I haven't ever seen in other performances of the Nutcracker.
The day after we got home she put on a tutu, grabbed a ribbon and said she needed Nutcracker music and proceeded to dance around twirling her ribbon.
We listened to the Nutcracker music and read her Ella Bella Nutcracker book everyday for about a month after we got home!
It was a great day but unfortunately the next morning I woke up at 3am and threw up more times than ever in my life.
I stayed Stephen's dad's house where we were staying and Stephen took the girls over to his mom's with everyone else and I spent all day in bed watching TV.
So I guess if you have to have some stomach bug, it might as well be at your in-laws with cable and free babysitters :)
Though I was super sad to miss out on the outing for that day which was to take all the girls to a dress up play place.
They sent me pictures while they were there and the cuteness almost finished me off.
Alice even got to have her nails done.
Thankfully I was the only one to get sick and other than being a few pounds lighter the next day, I was fine.
We packed up that day and said goodbye to everyone and flew home on a red-eye.
The End :)
