An Early Christmas with the Wee Ones

More than any gift in the world we could give or get, the gift of time with our family is the most precious. So, this year, Jay and I decided to take our family to Great Wolf Lodge as our "gift" to our kids/grandkids on the first Saturday in December. What a great decision!! With six grandkids from 5 months to 5 years, we knew this was going to be a very special magical Christmas. What can be more fun than the holidays with these kids who all have the wonder of Christmas in their eyes. What is more adorable than a 2-year-old spontaneously breaking out in song -- nothing! But here is how our weekend went, lest I forget some day. Great Wolf Lodge is a wonderful place with a huge indoor water park, and it's just north of Cincinnati so less than an hour away. The lodge lobby was transformed into a beautiful winter wonderland, with visits from Santa and Mrs. Clause and bedtime stories in the lobby at 8 p.m., complete with snow fall. So when entering at 1:00 on Saturday, our mouths dropped at the beauty of the place. We checked in to use the water park, even though the rooms would not be ready for check in until 4:00 (although we got in the rooms much earlier). I had in tow matching Christmas pajamas for all the adults and grandkids, as well as a couple of games for the little ones. We also had plenty of snacks and libations. (Rum and diet coke, no carbs! But still comes with a hangover -- oh well, it's the holidays!) The kids had a ball spending the afternoon in the water park, while I stayed in Matt/Jenn's room with Alex who was sleeping in my lap. When it was time for him to wake up, I was able to join in the fun in the water park. About that time Jenny (Bean) got there and also joined in the fun. Jordan is the only family member not there, as he was in Gatlinburg with a group of friends. :( After lots of water rides and slides, the worn out crew had pizza from the pizza place in the lodge for dinner, then headed back to our rooms for our Pajama Party! Everyone opened their wrapped gift of pajamas and put them on. Of course, grammy had little gift bags with coloring books and crayons and stickers and candy for each precious wee one. There was also Pin the Star on the Christmas Tree, and Christmas Trivia games. Little ones love anything that's a game, so they had a ball. Charlie and Sylvia worked hard at "decorating" the tree with stickers, while Margot and Claire were engrossed in their coloring projects. The best part of the evening was the adorable pictures we got of all the little ones in their Christmas pajamas, and even the family picture (minus Jordan) turned out awesome with everyone in their pjs. Before the night was over, the "old" kids headed to the bar in their jammies for a little adult partying. It was such a fun night for all of us! The next day check out was 11:00, but you could stay at the water park the entire day. Since Matt/Jenn's kids were exhausted, Jenn headed home with the kids after checkout. Jay had to take Matt to the airport about Noon, so that just left me and the Fasciottos at the water park until about 3:00. They all had a great family day in the water while I watched Albert on the side lines. I also got to get in the lazy river with the girls and we had a ball. All in all, I feel like this Christmas season has just been the best! We had so much fun being together at such a magical place for Christmas. I hope we can do something like this every year, or at least while the grandkids are still young enough to enjoy such a trip. WE ARE SO BLESSED.