Holiday Wrap Up

I hope everyone had good holidays. We certainly did. I wish I could say the holidays were relaxing, but in our line of work and with two kids, I don't think that's possible. At least they were enjoyable.

We went to look at lights on Christmas Eve. There is a picture in an earlier post of that.

Here are some pictures of what Santa left us.

Ignore the leg lamp stocking. That was left at our house from the White Elephant gift exchange game at our Christmas party. Can you imagine anyone not wanting that (JEN)????

Here are the kids playing with their toys from Santa.

Nate got a Hot Wheels Trick Track and a Spider-Man play set. I like to call it a "doll house" because it makes him mad.

Gray got a track that your roll balls down and some nesting animal cubes.

I got a set of flannel sheets and Kenny got "The Karate Kid." Everyone was happy with what Santa left for them. Nate even liked the underwear and socks.

After checking out our gifts from Santa we went to church. Then we made the drive to Grandview to celebrate with Kenny's family. As usual, there were way to many gifts, but that's part of the fun of Christmas with his family. If I can figure out how to get video downloaded I'll post Nate, Cooper and Ryan singing Grandma Got Run Over by A Reindeer on Christmas day. After listing to it 10 billion times Nate is able to sing all of the verses.

Kenny, Gray and I came home on Sunday and Nate spent a few extra days with his grandparents.

We had an exciting New Years Eve. We stayed home. I was sad when they showed Dick Clark on TV, its hard to listen to him after the stroke. We did manage to make it until midnight.

Mom came up on New Years Day and we had "Christmas" with her. I made Pasta alla Vodka for dinner. Nate decided he didn't like it before he even tried it. We wanted him to take one taste (half of a penne pasta noodle). He threw a fit that lasted no less than 1 1/2 hours. I am not exaggerating, ask Kenny or my mom. He cried and screamed for a full hour and a half. He asked about going to the bathroom and I told him as soon as he ate the pasta. He asked what if there is a fire and I told him he better grab the fork with the pasta. He finally gave in and tried it. He claims he didn't like it, but I don't think he really tasted it.

I got a new camera for Christmas, so I've been playing around with it. Here are some random photos.

Being a typical kid, even though he is surrounded by stimulating toys, Gray picks the box to play with.

Kenny's Parents managed to find adult sized footy pajamas. Here are Gray, Nate and I in our footy pajamas. Poor Kenny, he's the only one with out footies. Nate reminded us the that the dog does not have any either, but if he did Franklin would like them.

I love how the happy ears Eeyore makes Gray smile and laugh. Granny Barnes got it for him (it matches the one Grandma Hutchins got for Nate). :)

Nate always wants to have his picture taken, so here is one of him and Gray.

I'm sad that the holidays have past so fast (again). It's back to work, school and the old grind tomorrow.

We'll be staying busy with Nate. Basketball practice starts back up this week as well as game through the end of February. He decided he wanted to play flag football again in the spring, so that will be starting soon too. Many of the kids from his fall team will be returning, so we're getting ready for some more fun, exciting, and adorable football action!

Since everyone usually asks, Gray is doing pretty well with his glasses. If he doesn't have anything else to play with he'll take them off and play with them. Nate is a good big brother and excellent glasses police. He always lets us know when Gray has them off and usually takes them away. Now if we could only get him to stop putting them on his head and stretching them out.