We Wish you a Merry Christmas!

This year we enjoyed another great holiday season! Mark was slammed at work all during December - so he was ready for a few days off come the holidays! We had our friends the Mclellands over the week before to act out the nativity with us (this is our 3rd year of this tradition.) Then on Christmas Eve June came over and brought our family wonderful gifts that the kids loved including a basket of grape jam that I love! We love June and I am so glad she tolerates us since we don't have any family-grandmas here.

Christmas day morning we went to the Julians for our traditional brunch that we have been doing at least the past three or four years. Stacy makes some seriously delicious food and we bring the smoothies! I think we get the good end of the tradition!

After brunch at the Julians we met up with our wonderful family here (yeah! we finally have family around) We went to the Lees and had a nice evening with Liza and Jane's families. One of the funnest things about Christmas 2008 was all of the SNOW! We did some fun sledding with the cousins and the kids spent a lot of time playing outside.

Living in a Snow Globe

Well here we are, Christmas week 2008 and it has been the snowiest one on record (or something to that effect!) I must admit that we were happy about a white Christmas and I enjoy my children's return to the great outdoors to play in the white stuff (they don't go out to play in the cold, generally, unless there is snow)! But it is crazy how the snow has just gone on, and on and on! Mark said that one of his patients said we are living in a snow globe! And that is EXACTLY what it has felt like -- yep, it's still snowing every time you looked out the window for the past week and 1/2! Until today at around noon. Now it's warming up and the meltdown is creating some serious slop wherever you turn! But overall, I am glad for the snow. The kid's Christmas break started two School- days earlier than planned with the snow fall and school was cancelled. I snapped a few shots of our house and what Christmas looks like here.

My tree looks so lovely in this shot - but to be honest it is fake and looks it! I am ready for a new tree next year, but at night, it's hard to tell that the trunk has green plastic needles coming out of it! Also note the ornaments strewn about the floor. Ben and Sophia kept themselves occupied this year by stripping the ornaments off the lower portion of the tree every day.

We had a great Christmas this year. On Monday we had a family get together with my cousins Liza and Jane and their families. We love having them here in the area. Christmas Eve was spent at home and our friend June came over. Christmas Day we had our "traditional" brunch (I think this was the 4th year we've done it) at the Julians and then our cousins came over in the evening. We enjoyed all of the get togethers with people we love. Every year there is always a dilema on what and how much (or little) to get the kids for Christmas. We kept it simple this year and tried to give more than we got as a family. It was a good balance.

Holiday Photo Shoots

My friend Christine is just one of those cool people who has such a unique and fun style that she makes you wish you were more interesting! She is a talented artist who does not realize how amazing she is - very retro and has a beautiful - that's B E A U T I F U L family. We got a late start in the season in scheduling a little photo shoot for her Christmas mailing and were stuck with a photo shoot in the middle of a blizzard. The light was not ideal! But we had some fun with an orange wall and got some great photos anyway! Next year, we'll do it before the winter sets in.