Christmas part IV - in Pennsylvania

Over our two week trip we spent sometime in Harrisburg where we used to live visiting friends, going to Hershey to see the lights, staying in a hotel (which was great family time for us), swimming in the hotel pool, and visiting our friends at Paxton.  We loved seeing some of our old friends and our old home.  The kids didn't remember to much which was sad for me but it was good to take them back so it is a part of their lives.  I took very few pictures in Harrisburg I am not sure why except that I was enjoying the moment and forgot.

On Christmas Eve we went to our old church where Shawn was the youth pastor for the Christmas Even candle service.  It was great to see everyone and the youth were so happy to see us all especially the kids. A year makes a huge difference with the kids.  It was a beautiful service.  Then we enjoyed a quiet ride to Telford where Shawn's family lives to enjoy Christmas with his family.   I realized I hardly took any pictures I am not sure why except that I forgot.  Here are a few from the ones I took which I feel like in no way show how much fun all the cousins had together and there is not one picture of them with their grandparents.  I will have to make sure I do better next  year. 

 Here they all are waiting to start opening presents.  They did a good job watching each other open a gift and taking turns.  It was such fun.  

 Marin and Maya in their matching Phillies tee shirts

 Jeff and Maya

 Nana enjoying all the action

Sorry Jeff not a great picture of you but one of my few pictures of Sam so I wanted to include it.  

As a special gift for Shawn's Mom we scheduled a family photo session at a local place and went the day after Christmas.  It was fun to have some group pictures.  Here are just a few we were pleasantly surprised to get quite a few nice poses where everyone was looking pretty good.  It went pretty smooth unlike our last attempt to photograph the cousins where some of them cried the whole time no one wanted to sit and then they all proceeded to act wild in the picture place a bit of a disaster but this one was fun and they all did a great job.  

 Symeon 3 almost 4, Marin 2.5, Maya 2 almost 3, and Sam 4.5

 I mean are they cute or what?!

The really funny part is that we paid extra to get a cd we could make copies from etc and when we went to the store they wanted a certificate saying we could make copies from a CD we bought that was in the case etc.  We were laughing but this lady was really not going to let us take the pictures.  I told her they were pictures for our Nana which they were and finally she let us take them on the promise that we would bring in some certificate from the place saying we could make copies from our CD which we owned.  We said we would next time we were in the store although the store is in PA and we probably won't be back in that store for a year or more, which we forgot to mention.  In the end we had a good laugh over it but a bit frustrating since we paid for the CD.