The airplane ride may have been long, but we'll endure anything to be in Ohio and our visit rocked! Jenna and I flew out a week before Jake, who flew on Christmas Eve. I guess a person always takes a risk when they book a flight on Christmas Eve and sure enough, he got stuck in Houston but I think the flat screen TV, granite counters and king-size bed made it okay. He arrived at about 10:30 Christmas morning and he didn't miss too much - there were a lot of presents to open! Here are some highlights from our visit:

Christmas Sunday,

Gingerbread houses,

watching movies,

lots of cousin time ,
and Polly Pockets!

special jammies made by Aunt Missy,

not necessarily just for Christmas - she wore them a few nights ago!

FOOD

Our traditional Christmas Eve spread -thanks Amy!

opening presents,

working on puzzles,



chasing, tickling, and "wrastlin'" (as my grandpa called it).

It always feels like home when we visit my sisters and their families and we did not want to come back to California. We hated going from a house full of family back to our usual, boring, quiet days. Well, actually, it was only quiet for two days then we had a house full of people for New Year's Day. Some of Jake's family came over to celebrate the annual Pittson Family New Year's Party. We enjoyed an Italian-theme dinner, "chipping," making music with some of Uncle Eddie's instruments and just having good conversation. New Year's Eve was less of a party; Jake and I fell asleep on the couch around 9:45pm. Our excuse is that it still felt like Ohio time which would have made it 12:45am.

Sporting her 2009 party hat