This Christmas was unlike any Christmas I have ever had. It was my first without my family, and I took it harder than I thought I would. But Daniel's family was absolutely great and we all had such a blast at the beach house. Watching the grandkids open Christmas presents was really cute. All of them got darling new PJ's on Christmas Eve.
Here Alan and Dianna are helping lil Peter open his new PJ's. He was definitely the cutest man of the house.
Here begins the random pictures. Above is the Sunday after the beach house, right before we left to come home we wandered around the Mall and check out a couple museums. 
Here I am with the very impressive George Washington in the National Art Museum.
The Museum of Natural History was extremely crowded, but had lots of fun stuff to see. We wished Hannah could've been there!
Poor Daniel nearly got swallowed by a hippo.
Some of the exhibits were extremely graphic of animals dying or being attacked by predators. I thought it was kinda intense for a children's museum. Here I am sharing my sentiments about the poor wildebeast.
Above we have the tumultuous waves that greeted us Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. It was kinda cool to see the water so worked up only a few hundred few away from our house. If we had been staying any closer to the water I would've been nervous.
For example, this house was in front of our house. It is condemned and for good purpose. The water was crashing against the sand bags and the already destroyed deck.
Much of our time was spent bonding over the Wii. We had a lot of fun trying to play the retro Mario games and rocking out to band hero. Jason probably has the best Taylor Swift impersonation I've ever heard.
I think Mom and Dad really just enjoyed have everyone together and getting to dote on their super cute grandkids all the time.
That super good-looking silhouette is Daniel and I after our visit to the aquarium on Ronaoke Island. Pretty, yes?
Hannah was going through a "don't take my picture" phase, but we had to attempt to capture our sweet niece on film.
I don't think she knew we took this picture. We had such a fun time hanging out with her and Bella.
Beneath all Hannah's girliness is just a girl who likes to play football.
I think we had quite the impressive mantle ready to go for Santa. And we are even missing two stockings.
We had the COOLEST Christmas tree ever. It stomped all competition to the ground. We picked it up for only 10 bucks at the Food Lion (What a bargain for such a tree!!) Then it was adorned with homemade snowflakes (Courtesy of Alan and Dianna's amazing cutting skills), wooden and vellum ornaments colored by those of us very concerned with our coloring abilities (Erin, Daniel, and I) and those who just do it for fun (Hannah), and the final touch was created by Mom and Hannah (the beautiful paper chain). Oh! And don't let me forget the single string of lights we bought that only wrapped around the tree once and a half--the best part. And that is how we ended up with our masterpiece of a tree.
Oh by the way, here is the awesome beach house in Rodanthe that we all love so much now. The house from the movie "Nights in Rodanthe" was just about a mile or so up the road.
Here is the beach on a good day!! This was the first day Daniel and I ventured out onto the beach and checked everything out. It was considerably warmer than anything we've had in Rexburg for a long time, so we found it to be rather enjoyable. We played football out there a couple times, and woke up at six a.m. one morning to go collect seashells and got to see the sunrise over the ocean. Very beautiful.
And that is the end of our adventures in Rodanthe. It was definitely a Christmas we'll remember and it was so much fun to be somewhere new and exciting. Totally wouldn't mind going back again. 
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