2011

Here we are! A brand new year! The Holidays were fantastic, we certainly celebrated in style.

Christmas day was completely perfect. Cache woke up around 8:30 and totally bypassed the living room (?!) and went down to the playroom to watch a movie. Yeah. My kids are rad. Cody came home and we had breakfast as a family before opening presents.

I created these little certs for the kids and put them by their stockings. I thought for sure it would be this cool thing, like "Hey! Look! Santa knows that you've been nice this year!".
...Apparently I'm the only one who thought so, my boys didn't even give them a second glance. They were distracted by their new wind-up robots and pringles. (What, your kids didn't ask for Pringles?).

Watching my boys open presents on Christmas is the best thing ever. I love their little faces.

Santa was very generous and Cache got the "Lego Batman" game to go with our brand new wii! That's right, we now have a wii. And it's RED!! Oh my, I love it so much. Cache would play games all day if we let him and it's fun to watch he and Cody play together.

Cody went back to the station that afternoon and we got to just relax and enjoy the day. My family was coming over for dinner, so I got to cooking. I made a turkey, cranberry sauce and vegetables and a delicious vat of apple cider. I asked everyone in my family to bring some bubbly. We like to be a little fizzy on Christmas.

LOOK at these flowers! My dear friend Mark (who owns a floral business and is super marvy) made this for me specifically for my family party. Now I don't know how I'll be able to throw a party without him creating some floral masterpieces. (You can't tell in this pic, but the sticks were covered in glitter..it was so, so pretty).

I'm telling you - apple cider is the bomb. It's practically fail-proof and it's always SO delish! Now that I think about it, I should make another batch.

It was so wonderful having my family over! We ate and talked and settled in to watch 'Despicable Me' by the fire. That movie is solid gold, so hilarious.

The next night we went to my parents house for dinner and to watch Albert Finney's 'Scrooge' (the best version, as far as I'm concerned). Cole and Graham love to play together and couldn't get enough of this little train...love their cute little heads.

On New Year's Eve I went to the station and spent it with Cody and the fire crew (because Cody was also working on that holiday). We played some hilarious games and ended the night playing "Killer Bunnies". Have you heard of this? Or played it? So fun, we need a rematch.

I always get a little debbie downer after the Holidays. I am always so sure that I'll miss them so much and I'm not looking forward to Summer or a house with no colorful lights. But then somthing magical happens. And for some reason on January 2nd, something clicks inside me and I'm ready for the Holidays to be over and to take everything down and get ready for Spring. Anyone else? Alas, my house is still decorated...I have yet to take down our tree and other things, but it is only the 5th. Our house still has lights on it and much to Cody's dismay, I keep turning them on each night. If they're up they might as well be on, right?

I'm really looking forward to this new year. 2010 will be hard to beat, I must admit. We have been so blessed. We are so grateful for so many things, last year was the tops...and I'm certain this year will be even better.

Bring it on, 2011.