Christmas 2008

I hope everyone had a warm, safe and merry Christmas!! We had a nice holiday. I so enjoy spending the holiday at home and not having to be in an airport or on the road. It looked like a really big headache for a lot of the holiday travelers this year. Fortunately, Grandpa made it up to Vermont without any problems! Hope you are staying warm up there, Grandpa!!

We started celebrating here on Christmas Eve with our dear friend that we have know since way back in Alabama. She arrived around 2:00pm, and we sat around eating and visiting. She only lives about ten minutes away, but we cannot seem to see each other except for the holiday!! Terrible, I know. We had a large Christmas Eve dinner; the girls headed to bed around 9:00pm; and the grownups got to bed just after midnight. Everyone was up at 6:30am. The girls told me that they had been awake since "5:13am" but didn't want to wake us up that early, which was much appreciated! Although the big girls were up early, we had to wake up Rachel to go see what Santa had left under the tree. The girls were pretty excited about it all-although it was noted that they did not get the "most important" things on the list. This actually translates into the most expensive things on the list, but the kids did not really seem to care. We kept it pretty cheap, with the exception of the TV for the playroom. Despite not getting the "most important" toys, the kids have had a great time playing with the new toys. Allison is working really hard to master the unicycle and is making lots of progress. I cannot believe how fast she is picking up the skill.

We have just hung out around the house since Christmas. I got out in the yard yesterday and did some weeding and gardening in the flowerbeds. Gardening is a year-round hobby here. The kids played outside all day. Today I have got Mike fixing all of our leaking toilets. He is loving me for that. I think he has actually finished that project and is out in the garage working on his 30 year old trail bike. He wants to get it running again. He says Allison is old enough to ride it now, but I am a little uncomfortable with that. She still forgets to look for traffic when she crosses the street, so I am not too keen on putting her on a gas powered machine-it is tricky, isn't it Rosie!?!?