Christmas 2009

This is part of what we did this Christmas:

This Christmas was a bit crazy for us. We were in the middle of moving. That meant, no tree, no decorations, most everything in boxes, and I was feeling a little blue about it all.

Then. . .

Christmas eve came along. We spent most of the day packing and upacking. We got most of our stuff into the new place and our beds set up so we could have Christmas in our new home. That night, after the kids were tucked into bed, Jim and I stayed up late digging through boxes trying to find the kids' presents. After they were found, we kept digging until we found our Christmas stuff. Jim got the lights and tree skirt out. We also found a few stockings. We hung the lights around the room, and taped an outline of a tree with the rest of the lights onto our new living room wall. We layed our tree skirt under our "tree", and then Jim and I got to wrapping the gifts for our children.

It started to feel like Christmas.

I started getting that excited feeling. The kind of excitment where you want to fall asleep so morning comes faster, but try as you might, you can't drift into slumberland. I couldn't wait to have our little Christmas with our little ones.

Morning finally came and the four of us, with dog in tow, headed downstairs. Tralee didn't know what to think. I think she was a bit overwhelmed and didn't want to touch anything for the first few minutes. She started crying everytime we tried to touch or show her something from her stocking, so we waited a few minutes, fed Tralee some food, and let her wake up a bit more before opening the gifts. Once the shock wore off, Tralee was geared and ready to rip and tear. She was an expert present opener before all was said and done. Hunter even got in on the action. Both of our kids were blessed with several new toys, clothes, and books. Santa brought me a new vacuum (hooray!), and Jim got an old school Atari with loads of games from his sister Sue. Now we have an Atari and an old school Nintendo. Who needs a Wii? Not us! :)

My family back in Wisconsin has a tradition of eating Chirstmas brunch with the extended family at my Nana's house. We always have quiche lorain, cream filled crepes with raspberry sauce, ham, kilbasa, cherry kringle, cranberry bread, and other delicious food. Since we've been married, I try to make at least part of my Nana's brunch to carry on the tradition. I made the crepes, quiche, and ham this year.

After eating all the yummy food, Jim blew up the bouncy house in our bonus room and we spent a good part of the morning playing in it with Tralee and Hunter. Our camera was still at our old place, so the only pictures we have from Christmas morning, are the ones we took on our computer of us playing in the bouncy house.

Tralee was in heaven

She didn't want to stop playing to take this picture

Hunter woke up from his morning nap and had fun rolling around inside the bouncy

I was sitting at the computer and looked up just in time to snap this photo of Tralee giving her baby brother some loves. Melts my heart.

My babies playing with their Daddy on Christmas morning.

We had a VERY happy Christmas. I don't know what I was so worried about.