A Christmas recap to start the New Year

NOTE: I give up on the formatting. Blogger keeps screwing with it. It looks ok in the preview screen but is messed up after posting. Sorry.

Catching a snooze on the couch before it's time to get ready for Santa

Work and traveling have prevented me from recapping earlier.

Writing a letter to Santa

One of the best things about being a parent is getting to do all of those parent type things. You know, writing letters to Santa and leaving out cookies and all that fun. T was like a kid in a candy store on Christmas Eve because he'd been looking forward to it so much. I'll admit, personally, I was looking forward to Christmas morning and was too exhausted to get super excited on Christmas Eve. I just wanted to go to bed (this is something I want too much of lately.. haha).

Even a carrot for Rudolph!

T's sister and her husband alternate Christmas between their families (his are in the area and hers are up north). This year was their year down here so they came to have dinner with us on Christmas day. Originally, I didn't really want to cook and would have loved to have done Chinese take out. Alas, that would have required a drive into town - if anything was even open. And then I found out we were getting company, so I opted to toss together a lasagna and put together a salad. It was yummy, easy and didn't require a ton of cooking. We didn't have to attempt a self-portrait in front of the tree this year, either.

Christmas 2008 family portrait

We really had a lovely Christmas.

After T went in to work for a few hours Friday morning, Monkey and I picked him up to head up north to celebrate with our parents. Monkey's "big" Christmas gift this year was a portable DVD player (Santa brought a dual set in anticipation of New Bean). It came in handy when, with an hour to go, she had had quite enough riding. I pulled it out, strapped it to my headrest (she sits behind me) and put in some Elmo's World. The look on her face was priceless. And I even managed to snag a nap because she didn't need me to attempt to entertain her. Well worth the money!

We spent Friday night and Saturday with T's parents. Saturday night, we packed the car and headed another 15ish miles up to my parents house. Santa was making a special trip because he knew it wasn't really Christmas until the kids were together! He's a good guy, that Santa.

Watching their Pa plowing the driveway

I love getting the kids together and wish we could do it more often (Monkey had just pulled off her pants before that picture - she's always loved being naked and luckily hasn't figured out how to take off a onesie yet).

Monkey loved the toy cars Santa brought just as much as C did

Our trips up north are never long enough, as far as I'm concerned. The travel bit is a pain, though.

Now to pack it all up and think of next Christmas.