We had a great trip to Florida and I think S had a great first Christmas! (More coming later on M and S’s Santa presents). We arrived on Saturday and had a nice relaxing afternoon visit with Papa John and enjoyed some Park Avenue Ribs. On Sunday we had Christmas with my mom’s side of the family and the girls enjoyed playing with my cousin’s adorable children.

On Monday night we went over to Hoffman’s Chocolates to check out their holiday light display and to get some treats. This was a fun tradition when I was a kid and I figured M would love it since she’s been so into the lights this year. She especially loved the train they had setup – oh and her chocolate, she loved that too. She even saved a piece of it for me! Here’s a little family photo from Hoffman’s and a photo of M pretending to be a super hero. Notice her clothes – it’s hot in Florida even in December!

On Christmas Eve morning we opened presents with my parents. Santa also made an early delivery at my parents’ house since we wouldn’t be there for Christmas morning. (More on that in another post).

On Christmas Eve, M and S finally got to see there cousins when we went out for dinner with Papa John and family. After dinner, we went over to Grandma Jane’s house to wait for Santa! We left out milk and cookies. In the morning she discovered that Santa had left a note and a cookie – he couldn’t possibly eat all three she’d left and would she eat the third for breakfast? She was really excited about that. Here she is eating the cookie Santa left behind.

Even though they were far from home, Santa was able to find M and S at Grandma Jane’s house and fill their stockings. Here they are opening their stockings.

On the day after Christmas we headed with Papa John and the rest of the family to Vero Beach for a mini vacation at Costa D’Este Beach Resort. It was super nice and I took next to no photos. I did snap this photo of me and S watching the sunrise (after walking around for 1.5 hours trying to let everyone else in our room sleep in a little). Vacationing with an almost toddler and a preschooler isn’t super relaxing, but S and I managed to get in some great napping in a super comfy hotel bed and we all got to do some swimming.

After two nights in Vero, we went back to my mom and dad’s house for two nights. We had some old friends and their kids over for a play date and M got to make mint chocolate cookies with my mom. Mostly she just licked the chocolate.

We had a slight delay on our return flight but got a free ticket to compensate a super small inconvenience.  Not bad!