Another Week Gone...

Obviously, Christmas was the highlight this last week. We had Christmas with my family on Christmas Eve, then traveled about six hours to have Christmas with Robert's family on the 25th. Thankfully, the traveling was uneventful, unlike our first long road trip. It was wonderful to have two Christmases this year... I hope Grace doesn't think it always lasts two days!


The cousins pose for a picture.
Will they ever all be looking at the camera at once?

The girls are ready for bed. Looks like Gracie was
ready about an hour before this photo was taken!

Gracie was very excited when Papa and DeeDee brought gifts that we put under the tree:

Is this one for me? (Yes, it was.)

Can I open it now? (No, you can't.)
Although she did open it two days before Christmas,
despite our "barrier"!

We visited a local farm that sets up a major display for Christmas each year. They have a train ride, a snow machine (it doesn't snow here), animals and lots of fun displays:

The train pulling into the "station".



Our family on the train - and cousin John too!




Ta-Da! Instant snow fun!



Gracie's first look at snow. Notice she's wearing NO gloves?

Gracie and Daddy get into the Christmas spirit.

Christmas Eve morning we had a blast pretending it was Christmas, and opening lots of gifts. Grace got tired after about the third gift though, and finally just stood up and walked out of the room! Maybe she was wondering what the point of opening all those fun toys were, if we were just going to pile them in a heap off to the side and make her open another one.

Are you also going to take this one away
from me when I'm done?



Hmph. Next please! (What a face!)

Despite all the fun pictures of my cuties, cousin John definitely wins the prize for "Best Christmas Surprise Face":

Wow! It's an Iron Man!!

Mark got into the Christmas spirit with a little help from Daddy. Mostly he just ate the wrapping paper and wondered what the chaos was all about. He was really good at modeling his new Christmas clothes though!

It's a reindeer! It's a Santa! It's...
Super Christmas Mark!

Like this dad? Do I get to keep mine, or do they
go in the pile like Gracie's?

Ooohhh, wrapping paper. My favorite!

Mommy was thrilled to get her very own sewing machine! Can't wait to learn how to use it in my spare time... uh oh. I'm never going to learn, am I?

You can see how disappointed I am...

On the "real" Christmas day, we were with Rob's family, and had fun all over again. Grandma and Grandpa had flown in from Florida, and Uncle Mark and Aunt Kristin endured the four of us under their roof for five days. Mark and Kristin are expecting their first baby in March, so it was great practice to have a teething infant and curious toddler around. Well, that's what we told them anyway. *snickering*

Grace was better at the gift opening thing this time, and even Mark remembered what to do:

See Auntie Kristin? I'm a pro!

Yay! This one has no packaging!

Don't worry dad! I've got this one covered!

Okay, a little help here... how do you
open this one??

We spent most of the week relaxing with the family. We went on walks, went to the park, and even went to a unique animal "zoo" at the local university where students learn to train exotic animals! Grace loved seeing all the animals, as we've never seen any wild animals up close before.

Keeping up with Grace was a full time job.

Mark and Grandma were perfectly content to sit
and chat with one another.

At the end of the day, Gracie sat in Mark's
car seat, and looked as tired as we felt!

I hope you still have some energy left to celebrate the new year tonight... This year has been an amazing one for us, and I'm so thrilled to have found a way to share it with all of you. I can't wait to see what 2011 brings!