Christmas #4 - Family Christmas

Today I got up at 2:30am to surprise Josh. I got him a monitor for Christmas and my parents got him a matching one (he wants two matching monitors so he can be batman.) My thought was to set up the monitors by the tree and have one of them display "from santa" and the other display "from Don and Deena." I silently took his computer downstairs, got the monitors all set up, booted his computer up and....then it asked me for the password I didn't have. Sigh...it was a good idea. So I put bows and little to/from labels on them and grumbled back to bed. Josh had no idea and was complaining that someone stole his keyboard before he figured out that his PC was downstairs....

--Two matching monitors, now all he needs is a batcave--

Mac slept in until 8:30 today. I think it is because she is slowly changing to Washington time. I brought her downstairs, and she noticed that the presents were "ah gon?" I showed her that someone had moved them into the living room.

--surprised (and slightly drowsy) toddler--

--Presents before the destruction--

Of course she noticed right away that Santa brought her an Elmo driving toy. She ran to the presents to retrieve it.

--Elmo!--

--after about 3 hours I got it out of the ridiculous packaging--

We opened the rest of our presents, running out of videotape about half way through...oh well. Josh got me new boots, a special messenger bag that I asked for for our Europe trip, a bundt pan, a label maker, some kitchen gadgets and a homemade collage of picture frames (pretty cool!) and I got him a case for the portable DVD player, a bag for him to tote around Europe, a pillow for the plane, and a CD of lovesongs from Hawaii.

Mac had fun opening her presents (and most of ours).

--opening trampoline (small) that we got for her--

She got the cutest clothes from Gavin, a sweater with fur on it and matching pants. She also got a really soft sweatshirt with pants from her cousin Andrew and 4 amazing dresses from Aunti April....she has great taste!!!

--Bringing present to mommy--

--Aunti April wrapped her presents so well that mommy had to help--

Daddy got Mac some software for 18month-3 year olds...I am sure she will be better with computers than I am in a few months. He also got her some legos and some fun things for the plane. Mommy got her a toybox - a little selfish as we NEED to get the living room organized.

--She seemed to like the pictures--

--The aftermath, thanks for cleaning it up daddy!--

Here are some cute videos of her playing with her presents:

Christmas #3 - Grandma and Grandpa Great's

We tried something new this year - Christmas brunch. We met at Grandma and Grandpa Great's the morning of the 22nd. We had cinnamon rolls, two different egg casseroles, fruit, bacon, sausage, the works. Just like at Gona and Baca's, Mac wanted her Aunti Em. She was quite the entertainer.

--Bridgot made these really cute santa cupcakes--

--So much food!--

--Here is Mac entertaining the crowd--

--Emmi got Mike and Mark sweatshirts displaying their Ford and Chevy pride--

Every year we do a roundrobin of gifts. Everyone gets a number, then you go in order and draw gifts. When it is your turn you get the option to steal someone else's gift, or draw a new one. This year we had such entries as a small toilet, peanut brittle, and old Christmas orniments.

--Edna's round robin gift was a cow--
--McKenna sharing Aunti Em's lap with Kade--

We had a lot of fun. Kim K drew Josh this year and got him a coin jar that keeps track of how much is inside. Mark drew me, and got me a cookbook! Thanks for a fun day!

Christmas #2 - Gona and Baca's

On the 19th we went to Gona and Baca's for dinner and presents. Each year it gets more and more difficult as kids get older and are traveling, but we managed to all make it together for a celebration. We started the evening with a new tradition - green spaghetti and red sauce. There was also fruit, cheese, bread and salad, YUM!

--Here is Nikki serving pasta--

--I think this is my favorite picture of Mac so far this Christmas--

Mac wouldn't eat in her chair, only on Aunti Em's lap. She is quite an Aunti Em's girl! She also got to wear her new Santa bib that Gona and Baca got her for Christmas.

Here she is running around with the cousins before presents:

--And we had the perfect setting with a real fire and a tree--

--Aunti Em got towels, now she can answer the door like a desperate housewife :)--

--Gona and Baca got Mac a lamb that unfolds into a pillow and blankey, she told everyone night night and laid down with Aunti Em--

--Baca got a cowboy hat, isn't he handsome!--

--Tali wanted a cell phone for Christmas, this was Gona's idea of something close--

--Later she got a real cell phone, and Nikki got a box of money!--

--Kade got an aquarium--

The funny story with the aquarium is the order in which the presents were open. Gona and Baca got him a cleaning set and a plant for it, but he hadn't opened the aquarium yet. Gona told him it was to help clean hers when he came over. Kade attempted to act happy and said thank you....it was too funny!

We were very spoiled this year. We got language CDs for italian, along with Italy guides and money belts, calendars, Drake clothes, portable DVD player, snowman kit, folding chairs, cookbooks, socks (emmi is starting a new tradition - love it!) Mac got clothes, socks, her lamb, emergency kit for the plan ride to Washington, a tote to hang on the back of our car seat that has her name on it, and can hold all her treasures, a baby doll, a sled, and I know I am missing some things, but needless to say, it was a great Christmas!!!

Christmas #1 - Heather Christmas

Heather is Mac's nanny - and she is amazing! She invited all the kids and their families to a Christmas party at Happy Joe's pizza. It was perfect because they had video games, a merry go round, and no one had to clean up the mess of so many kids!

--We had a good time talking with mommies of the babies Heather watches, this is Nick--

--We got to use the party room, and will all the kids and families, we filled it up!--

--Here is Heather and Dustin serving dinner--

--Mac was a little nervous about the merry go round at first, so we watched Cole, Ruthie and Taylor--

--Then she decided it would be okay if Taylor rode with her--

--By the end of the evening she was riding all by herself--

--Happy Joe's made a mint from all the parents that night, I don't think the merry go round stopped!--

--Mac's first pizza, she was a big fan!--

--Heather opened our gift (a gift certificate for a spa visit) after dealing with all these kids all day, I say she deserves it!--

--Heather gave Mac this table for Christmas, it does ABCs and numbers and has play food, very cute!--

We had a really fun time! McKenna kind of understood the presents, but I know she had fun on the merry go round and eating pizza, thanks Heather!

Holiday card

I think I sent a card to everyone on our list - but if I missed you, here is a copy of our card! I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Josh Holiday Party

At the end of November (man time flies) Josh had his holiday party/Casino Night. Of course it was right at the beginning of this nasty weather we have been having. Josh stayed really late Thursday decorating their old cafeteria. The place is beautiful and used to be owned by a private catering company that did wedding receptions there. They hung lights and set up tables. They had tables for kids to play at with movies and crayons. Lots of people came, and there was pizza, pasta, ice cream...really a good time!

Unfortunately it was at the end of a very long day for McKenna and me, so we didn't get to stay very long, but it sounds like he had a great time!

--Of course our little camera didn't do the room justice - it really was beautiful!--

--Hallway leading up to the room--

Turkey Day

It has been over a week since Thanksgiving, but we have been busy busy busy. It is our nutso time in retail with black friday, and the following busy weekend.

Josh decided he was going to make rolls this year. We have a recipe in my family that are the most amazing rolls I have ever eaten. Since I was swamped with homework and work this year, Josh decided he would try his hand at them. The first batch smelled amazing. He did everything the recipe said, but for some reason the dough wouldn't rise? He left it for an extra long time on the warm oven, but nothing. We baked them anyway, and they tasted great, but were a little heavy. We both blame bad yeast...it had to be.

Never settling for second best, Josh attempted a second batch. This time they rose wonderfully, they smelled great and looked incredible. When we started munching on them...they tasted kind of bland. It wasn't until later that Josh realized he had forgotten the eggs and half the salt.

Oh well, I think it was two successful attempts. He called the two batches the look right, taste wrongs, and the look wrongs taste rights. Good memories!

We went to Gona and Baca's for Thanksgiving Day. The plan was to go at 11am and to cook my green bean casserole there. Well, about an hour before we were going to leave, Gona called saying that her oven broke...we needed to bring our crock pots and turkey roasters. Everything turned out really yummy...maybe we should use those again next year!

Every year we have a Farkle tournament. It is a dice game where you add up points to win. This year Mike was the grand champion. It was quite the game!

--Mac and cousin Tali--

--Pretty table--

--Farkle tournament after dinner--

--Second half of contestants--

This year's black friday was fairly uneventful. Normally there are fights, arguments, yelling, nothing like that this year. I kind of enjoy the drama, as I am usually the one that has to deal with it...oh well! I suppose that is a good thing! I did work 36 hours in 3 days though....wow was I tired. Still my favorite time of year to work though!

Mooooooooorrrrrre

I FINALLY captured this on video. It was one of Mac's first words. Since we enunciated it when teaching her, she still drags it out....Hilarious!