Feliz Navidad!

I vowed that this year we'd focus on Christmas traditions other than receiving gifts. Since we don't need anything, don't have room for anything, the economy's in the toilet, and we had a Christmas morning crowd that was less than half of our normal size, it seems like the mound of gifts should have been far smaller. Maybe the mound just looks big because the tree is skinny.

We had a really nice holiday...Christmas Eve dinner at Uncle Brady & Auntie Monica's, Christmas morning with Grandma Ginny and Majda, and Christmas dinner with all of the above plus Auntie Naima and some friends. It was very low-key and relaxed, so my post-Christmas recovery nap will only be 3 days this year (as opposed to 4 days last year). I've got a bad cold but I'm trying to kick it before I head out with The Mommies for a night at the Norwich Inn & Spa on Monday.

The favorite gifts this year were an iPod, Nintendo DS, Fur-Real kitty, and digital camera for Aliya, a racetrack set, knights, Speed Racer, and Wall-E for Adlani, and baby dolls, a tricycle, and yet another talking Elmo for Norah. I took the bold step of making most of the gifts I gave to the adults in my life...photo books, photo mugs, CD's of holiday music, and homemade candy. I also bought a webcam for my Mom and Keith and one for us, so we can see each other via video chat. We've got Skype set up on 3 computers so we're hoping someone will give us a video call soon so we can stop sitting around the dining room table looking at each other on the monitors and listening to the feedback from being so close.

Here are some random holiday photos...

18 inches of snow!

Ready for the slopes:

The aftermath of a mixer accident:

Tooth-brushing attire:

Making cookies:

Hanging out (and stair surfing) with Uncle Brady & Auntie Monica:

Visions of sugar plums:

Christmas morning:

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That's a Wrap!

It's been such a hectic month that there are lots of things I haven't had time to post on the blog. One of those things is a huge THANK YOU!!!! to all of my coworkers, friends, and family members who participated in the holiday gift drive for the Pathways Family Shelter. A few weeks ago we had brunch at our house so everyone could drop off their gifts and get everything wrapped. I was overwhelmed with the generosity of everyone involved...I had to go back to the shelter and ask if they had any extra kids because we had so many people willing to be sponsors. The grand total was 32 kids and 14 parents who received gifts and stocking stuffers (small gifts and gift cards for the parents). I sincerely appreciate everyone's efforts to make this happen.

Some photos from brunch:

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Portland, Maine

After our trip on the Polar Express we drove over to Portland to see Uncle Josh & Auntie Rachael. They had no electricity so they came over to our hotel for a little while and then we went out for Mexican. The next day we went to the Children's Museum and had Thai take-out at their apartment and visited for a few hours. We drove home that night by way of Petco, where we had to hunt down some pee remover because Norah peed on Auntie Rachael's couch. Simple Solution pee remover rocks!!

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