Christmas in Shreveport

Now that we are finally back home and settling back into our normal routines, I have some serious blogging to catch up on! Since my last post, we have gone to Shreveport for Christmas, back to Dallas for unpacking, cleaning, and repacking, down to San Antonio for New Year's Eve, and finally back home to stay...for a little while anyway. We had a fantastic time with both of our families and were grateful for the opportunity to spend time with everyone. Whenever we come back from trips to see our families, our conclusion is always that we say we need to go "home" more often. What a good feeling to have after seeing everyone. We love you all and are so thankful for each and every one of our family members!

Here is the first leg of our trip...Christmas in Shreveport.

On Christmas Eve, we drove over to Shreveport to spend the next few days with Ethan's side of the family. We spent Christmas Eve over at Gimps and Gloria's house and had a wonderful time visiting with aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and parents. As usual, the annual gift exchange was a ton of fun and provided everyone with some good laughs and fun gifts to take home.

Ethan, Elijah, and the beautiful hostess, Gloria.

Elijah with Daddy and his great grandparents.

The Boys:  Ethan with his cousins Andrew, Tanner, and Austin

The Girls:  Gloria, Blair, and Callie

Hanging out with Daddy

Tanner, Gary, Jamie, Ethan, and a most delicious pot of gumbo! :)

Me and my little boy in his Santa PJs.  All ready for Santa to come this Christmas Eve! :)

On Christmas Day we had a relaxing morning with Ethan's parents and then had a big Christmas lunch with his other grandparents, uncle, and his sister, brother in law, and their kids who made the drive over that morning. Everything was delicious!

Four Generations!  Joseph Cislaghi, Gary Cislaghi, Ethan Cislaghi, and Elijah Joseph Cislaghi

Elijah is obsessed with his Pops!  The second Ethan handed Eli over to Gary for the picture, he began staring at him like this and did not stop until he went back to Ethan.  What a silly boy...he must get it from his Daddy. 

Further proof of Elijah's love for Pops. :)

Christmas night we went over to Reid and Paula's, enjoying time with the fam and celebrating Gloria's birthday!

The Cislaghi/Venters Bunch

Another classic family pic while Elijah works on those teeth coming in.

Our wonderful hosts, Paula and Reid.  And, a special thanks to Paula for the pictures!  A bunch of the shots from Christmas Eve and Christmas night are pictures that Paula took...she is a great photographer. :)

Gloria, the birthday girl, and Nonie

Ethan and Eli, who managed to avoid getting his pants put back on after his last diaper change.

Eli and Pops

Opening his present from Lollie (aka Paula)

May as well tag this little guy so we don't misplace him along with the rest of our bags!

Elijah loves his cousin Emory!

Great picture of Gary and Jamie!

And a great picture of Nonie and Gimpa!

Elijah happened to find some entertainment while all of the boring adults spent their time talking.  Nothing like climbing on a chair to add life to the party!

Christmas Morning
The morning of the 26th we had our "Christmas morning" with Amber, Eric, and the kids (and Ethan's parents), since they had just driven in the day before.

Ready for Christmas Morning!

Ethan and Boomerang

Emory got a camera and is already quite the photographer.

Eric helping the boys dig into their new toys.

Elijah trying to swipe Abram's toothpast while the kids are distracted with other things.

Love this picture of Asher proudly displaying his new soccer ball!

Jen and Elijah, both still waking up

Once again, Elijah was not a huge fan of the actual opening of presents.  I think he likes the boxes, ribbons, paper, and bows the best.

Opening presents with Mommy.

Playing with his cool new fire truck from Mamie and Pops

Nothing like a little Daddy time

Eli loved the tissue paper

Super sweet picture of Ethan and his little man

After opening up the presents and playing with all of the fun new toys we headed to Patrick's house for the afternoon to visit with some of Ethan's old high school friends.

Ethan, Jen, and Elijah

Group shot of the Evangel Clan and their families

On our last morning in town, we spent the remainder of our time visiting with family. Nothing like a few photos before we leave...not sure we have enough yet! :)

Elijah with his great grandparents, Nonie and Gimpa

Ethan, Nonie, Gimpa, and Eli

Daddy and his little buddy

Saying Goodbye to Gimps

Trying on Daddy's Hat

Ethan, Eli, Gimps, and Abram

As I'm sure you are sensing by now, it was an action packed trip! We are glad for the time we got to spend with our family and friends and look forward to seeing everyone again soon!