It's been too long! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Well, call me the slacker mom or just the busy mom, but I have not blogged in quite sometime. My deepest apologies!!! What is new with us? Let me tell you...

The Christmas season was such a wonderful time for our family. Todd was fortunate enough to have almost two full weeks off of work. It was so wonderful having him home to play with us. With all his time off we were able to get a lot done around the house and were able to go to my parent's house and Todd's parent's house several times! I know that I am dreading Todd going back to work, but I think he might be dreading it more.

Now, I will try to detail our entire Christmas in this blog... good luck, huh?!
On the Monday before Christmas we still had not had the girls' picture taken with Santa. With Thanksgiving being so late this year, we blinked and Christmas was here. Since we waited so long, most of the Santas we called about had already gone back to the North Pole... of course they had. The only place we were able to find a Santa was Bass Pro Shop. (Thanks Kim Lockhart... your blog saved the day!!) We were afraid he would be in flannel or in camo... thank goodness no! He actually turned out to be a great Santa Claus. The elves were wonderful as well. We were certain that Allyn would have a fit and not want to sit on his lap, but figured every Santa picture montage has one of your child screaming. We talked to her about him the entire way down there... which was about an hour and a half car ride. We kept telling her that Santa would come to her house and bring her toys if she sat on his lap. She was not so sure. She kept telling us that she wanted just Hollis to do it and then she would give him Rabbi but not sit on his lap. When we got there the Elf took her by the hand and said, "Santa, you remember Allyn don't you?" I thought this was wonderful because it made her a little more comfortable. Well, she sat up on his lap and although not completely sure she sat there and did not cry... picked her nose... but did not cry! Yippee! Hollis of course did wonderfully! Just chilled out!
The best part of the whole thing was that the picture they give you was free and we were able to take our own pictures.

After the Santa pictures we headed to my mom's house for dinner. As a little extra Christmas present she bought us Guitar Hero for our Wii. We of course broke it out and started rocking... I do not think we have stopped since!!! I have already beat the game on easy and now working through the songs on medium. Todd is awesome! It is almost just as fun to watch him play!

Tuesday was friend catch up day. My friend Jessica from college came over and we did a little outlet shopping a lunch at Moe's! Yum-o! Later that afternoon Tyler came over for a visit! It was so great to see him! I do not ever feel like I get to spend enough time with him and love every second we are together, so on Christmas Eve I took Hollis over to his parent's house! I guess we spent about an hour there or so... still not enough time with such a dear friend! One day I will hopefully make it to the big City to see him!!

Christmas Eve we packed up the car and headed to Todd's parents for the traditional Christmas Eve dinner down there. Funny how you can have traditions and kids not comply!! Christmas Eve was a diaster! Time had gotten away from us a little bit and it was already about 30 minutes past bedtime and we had not eaten or opened presents yet! Yikes!! Painting a good picutre huh? I felt so bad for Dianne; she had done all this work and prep and we basically had to pack up and leave. Allyn was a completely different child. She was not listening and just being whinny! Hollis would not sleep and was getting fussy. And to top it off, we forgot diapers for both of the girls. It was with that we decided Christmas Eve traditions needed to change and we should stay close to home for the girls sake. It is not that they are bad and cannot be taken any where; I just think the hype and excitment of Christmas might have gotten the best of us!

Christmas morning we got up and came downstairs to see all the great presents from Santa. Allyn's eyes were as big as I have ever seen them. I think she finally was able to put the whole Santa thing together! We had made cookies for Santa and left a note from him. He wrote her back and ate some of the cookies. She kept looking at the cookies and then decided she would finish off the cookie he started but did not finish! Santa was good to us and brought more toys to our already bursting playroom!

After we did presents and Santa my mom, brother, sister and step-dad came up. We played lots of Wii and opened presents with them. It was great having them over! It was a fun day just being silly and not doing a whole lot. Later in the afternoon Juice and Gus came over to visit and see the girls. The highlight was probably watching Juice and Gus rock it out on Guitar Hero!

That evening, Dianne and Todd's grandparents came over to finish the Christmas Eve we started but did not finish! After all our visitors had left we were exhausted! The girls were pooped! Everyone went to bed early!!

Well now here we are already in the New Year! Where did time go??? I guess Monday we are back to the norm! It has been a great past two weeks!

On another note, we have gotten lots of calls and e-mails about Todd's dad. We cannot tell you how much we appreciate the thoughts and prayers. Todd was there this morning and had a great visit with him! I am thankful for every second he can spend with him! Whether Alan can remember it or not, Todd will treasure it forever!

Ok, enough talking... onto the pictures! (P.S. We do not have a ton of pictures... most of the pictures were taken by family members since we were the present openers.)

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