Christmas II

As mentioned before, Seth, Eleanor and I headed out to Iowa City, Iowa for Christmas this year. We went to visit Seth's family and gathered at his parent's house. We traveled to IA by way of plane from Billings, MT on Christmas Eve. The drive up to Billings was long, cold and snowy, but safe. The planes, layover, etc was as smooth as could be expected during the holidays. We made it to IA just a couple of hours later than planned. Eleanor traveled well and was very excited to see her grandparents.









Just an hour or so after we arrived at Grandma and Grandpa Tippin's house, Seth's brother and his wife, Matt & Natasa, arrived from Michigan. We haven't seen them since before Ellie was born, so it was wonderful to have the chance to get together again. Ellie greeted them with enthusiasm from her high chair, covered as usual with vegetable goo.



A few short hours later, Seth's Grandmother arrived and we all dressed up and headed out to our Christmas Eve service at West Branch Friends Church. It was a beautiful service - simple, calming, still and celebratory. I've been missing worship in the manner of Friends, and was looking forward to the service. Unfortunately for me, I was ridiculously tired that evening and had a hard time staying focused, but did enjoy the experience.


The next morning was Christmas! Ellie had a great time opening her stocking (and so did we) and then we gathered for coffee and waffles. Jon is the waffle chef of the family and these were certainly delicious!

Next up were presents!:

With so many people and so many presents, nap time crept up on Eleanor...

But, luckily she woke up just before our group was ready to break for the morning and vigorously opened her last few gifts.

The rest of our time in IA was good, relaxing and carefree. We enjoyed meal times when everyone was together, appreciated lots of time and space to tend to Ellie's needs, took advantage of being 15 minutes away from a shopping mall, and had fun watching Eleanor, her aunt & uncle, grandparents, great-grandmother and the dog, Jack, interact.

One of the best pieces of the trip was the chance for 4 generations of the Tippin family to be together. Luckily, we remembered to get a few pictures.

Unfortunately, as we didn't get the camera out as often as I would have liked... and therefore don't have any pics of Ellie with her Aunt Natasa and Uncle Matt. If any of you have one or two, please send them our way! We love you all and had a wonderful Christmas.