The Seven Days of Iowa Christmas

Christmas tends to not be a discrete celebration for us, particularly when we go to Iowa. Our extensive extended family tends to have other familial obligations on the 25th and so the Yuletide is celebrated via a series of informal mini gatherings rather than one central feast. And while this wreaks havoc on poor Grandma Z's menu planning skills, it means that we get to see a lot of relatives in a relatively short amount of time.

Sure, Aunt Katherine shot Owen in the head with an arrow (a nerf arrow, mind you) and Nora got lost while wandering unsupervised through Aunt Helen and Uncle Ken's house. Yes, maybe it wasn't the best idea in the world for Grandpa Z to make Owen (and cousin Olivia) a real spear using Indian arrowheads (though at least Owen's new light saber distracted him). Ok, we probably shouldn't have bailed on Christmas Eve mass just because we couldn't actually see the mass. And yeah, it would have been nice for kids not to be innundated with caucus ads describing their hometown as a den of evil responsible for all that is wrong with the world.

But nobody lost an eye, we were able to meet three new baby cousins, Santa came, we played a lot of hide-and-go seek, ate a ton of goodies, stopped by the pond, and had a pretty amazing time.

And then we came back to DC and did the whole thing over again.

(Click here to see all the pics from our adventures in Iowa.)