Blah, Blah, Christmas, Blah, Blah - Part 4 (9/365)

Click to enlarge to see the pretty starbursts - thanks for the tripod, folks.

I'm sure you're probably sick of reading about Christmas as much as I am about writing about it, so this will be my last post on the subject. In all fairness we did have about 12 days of it so 4 posts worth of content seems about right. Today is also the day we are finally taking our Christmas decorations down so the post seems even more fitting. I'm not looking forward to breaking a certain three year old's heart - the kid definitely has her Grandma Susie's love of Christmas.

So, to continue, after Christmas we packed our bags and headed south. Unfortunately our destination wasn't the southern part of the country (unless you're talking to my in-laws, or any other Chicagoland native) where it was most assuredly warmer, but I could deal with the chill with family near. And boy was there LOTS of family near - at one point there were 14 of us at the house at one time! Thankfully we didn't all have to sleep at the same house. James, Mike, Rae, and Kaylee were of course missed, and I'm sure we all long for the day when we can all be under the same roof together again. I know I do.

Ryan wasn't able to stay long, but most of us were together for about a week - and we enjoyed every last minute of it. Most of the trip we spent simply enjoying one another's company. Charles and I made foldovers (ok, I made them, he watched and we chatted), Matt fixed computers, Tori and I ate "must haves" before starting our diet on the 4th, Cindy DIDN'T work, Dad DID, we took down Christmas, Alice threw many a tantrum (ahh, gotta love age 3), we saw movies, Tori got smashed. Oh, and don't forget the turkey with all the fixin's. All in all it was a pretty damn good trip home.

Ry, Izzy, and Erinn cheesin'.

Izzy loved playing with Ry's dog tags.

Erin's younger sister and her Mom joined us for Christmas dinner and gifts.

The reaction from the 'rents when Matt brought in their real gift.
OK, so the story goes I ordered a rather large canvas
of the pic of the girls I used on our Christmas card.
Well I wasn't 100% satisfied with how it turned out
(something that would only bother me),
so I had the printer fix it. When I asked them about sending
the first one back to them, they told me to just give it to someone else!
Mind you, this sucker is huge, and not cheap!
So the logical choice was to give it to Dad and Cindy.
Merry Christmas from Canvas On Demand!
(whom I HIGHLY recommend, by the way. Their work is AMAZING!)

Izzy and Tori chillin' on the blow up bed.

Precious moments caught on film flash card.

Izzy "eating" a lil' smokey. Auntie was teaching her
early about the Carlson's favorite breakfast food.

Thank goodness for Grandmas.

I know, this post is exhausting!

How We Spent Our Christmas Vacation - Part 3 (6/365)

Despite the fact that Annie and I slept on the couches Christmas morning, Santa still came for the whole family. Can't say that I heard the Big Guy, but he sure did leave quite a good amount of loot in his wake. Matt was upstairs with the girls - unfortunately he didn't get much sleep. I don't know what it is about those girls, but they just do not like to sleep anywhere other than their own beds.

Morning came and we all changed INTO our Christmas PJs - yes I said into. My mother in law decided last year that 2009 was going to be Christmas PJ Christmas so we could all be comfortable. Needless to say I think we are going to continue the tradition next year! It was so nice to sit in super comfy PJs all day and visit with family. Fred out did us all though - his fiancee bought him some footie jammies - complete with trap door.

Everyone got lots of great gifts, and of course the girls made out like bandits. My fav was definitely the book Matt had made from my Alice in Chicagoland blog. It's nice to have it in print and to be able to look back on that time in our lives. Plus it was the motivation for me to make this blog!

After dinner and the ornament exchange that I mentioned the other day, the crew and I packed up and set out for home - with twice the amount of stuff in tow that we came with! Despite having fallen asleep nearly as soon as her head hit the carseat, Alice was ready to dive into her presents that Santa left for her at home while we were at Grandma and Grandpa's. After giving her about a half an hour to wake up, that is!

We also showered them with gifts, but the one I was most excited for Alice to open was her American Girl doll. She had actually been mine for 20+ years, but for the last 10 or so she's had a broken limb. As far as Alice is concerned, I sent Santa my doll and his elves fixed her up for me and he brought Kirsten back to our house for Alice to enjoy. The joy on her face when she first saw the doll really made my Christmas.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Alice and Izzy Christmas morning in front of the massive amount of
presents at Grandma and Grandpa Bathje's house.

Izzy enjoying Uncle Freddy's puppet.
Too bad you can't see Fred's PJs in all their glory.

"Oh my GOODNESS! Look what Santa brought!"

Can you tell she's in love already?

Izzy needed a bit of coaxing, but she seemed to enjoy herself
despite not knowing what was going on.

We saw this reaction, or better, several times through out the day.
My favorite was when she opened the Hungry Hungry Hippos from Auntie Annie.
She about died!