Happy Holidays - part one

have taken a lot of photos this month - a lot! And since I am still, yes still, figuring out how to tkae good pictures not all of them coming out of the camera looking great. Therefore I have a lot of editing to do. And while I could just leave the photos as is and be able then to watch the progress in my photograhy skills I am just not able to do that. When I know what I can do to a snowy photo that always turns out too dark and gray with just a couple clicks in Photoshop why would I leave it looking too dark and gray. But of course a couple of clicks per photo when I have 100+ to go through tends to take a bit of time. The reason of course, for all this photo talk is to try and explain my absence from this blog over the last two weeks. But I am happy to announce that I completed my editing process of my December photos last night at around 10:30 and now they are blog-ready so here it goes...

I have titled this post part one as I have a feeing it may get a little long and the normal stuff that goes on in this house may pull me away before I come to the end. Part two will follow shortly.

Christmas Eve: this year was different than most. Normally Mary and her family spend the day with us and we celebrate Nana's birthday for half the day and then switch gears to Christmas for a turkey dinner and presents and all that stuff. But this year Mary and her family were picking pineapples and riding the surf in Maui so we changed things up a bit. Since Nana always gets just half a day to celebrate her birthday we decided this year she should get the whole day. It started as it always does - with all the kids climbing on her bed to bring her tea and toast and presents. We love that tradition. The rest of the day was mostly hanging out, playing games and then heading out into the great Christmas snowfall of 2008 to sled and throw snowballs. (This last sentence could almost wrap up the whole of our holidays but there are a few highlights in there so I will go on.)

Santa stopped by (our friendly neighbor)My favorite of the day. Warming themselves by the fireplace after they shedded all their wet snow clothes. We ordered Chinese for dinner and Tag loved the chopsticks - I think he kept eating just to keep using them. Then we quickly made a few sugar cookies and the kids spent the evening decorating them for Santa. Nana got a rice krispie treat cake with a candle in it.We ended the night with the traditional gift of new pajamas and Tony read The Night Before Christmas and I read the new book (I buy a new book for every Christmas Eve), Olive the Other Reindeer. Then we nestled them in all snug in their beds and headed to bed myself.

Christmas Day: A perfect White Christmas. I am hopelessly a kid when it comes to snow and eventhough I know it makes it hard for people to get around (a little eye rolling here) I still love it. So all day I just kept looking out saying "I can't believe all this snow".

Anyways, Christmas morning was just as it should be. Wide-eyed kids and wrapping paper all over the floor. The best reaction was from Cooper when he opened his i-pod. He has wanted one for so long but we have always downplayed it, saying he is too young, blah-blah-blah, but this year we thought he was ready. He had completely given up on getting one and was so genuinely surpised (and thrilled) when he opened it. Tag got the Cars computer that he wanted, Hudson spent most of the day building the Lego Ferrari he got and Reagan baked things for us with her new EZBake stuff.

Lots of installing batteries, putting together new toys, figuring out and playing new games, and of course eating. Good stuff.

Oma and Opa came to spend the evening with us and Tag had to show them his new computer.