Happy New Year!
It has been a very busy Christmas season! As a result, I haven't spent that much time on the computer. It doesn't help that I've had my butt front and center before the television playing Dance Dance Revolution and looking like a complete and total idiot. But, damn, it's fun!

I've always said that I can't dance unless it's choreographed to an eight count and this is pretty darn close.

We had an excellent Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve with Tommy's family and Christmas day with mine. It was a little busy with driving back and forth and cooking for each separate family...not that my items were labor intensive, though, really.

I've spent the day taking down the Christmas tree and putting away all the decorations. Thanks to my mom for hammering the idea that the tree must come down before New Year's. Even though I'm not so sure she has taken her tree down.

And I'm sure I'm not alone in the feeling of wanting to really declutter and organize every aspect of this house. There's just something about the new year...so ripe with possibilities.

Christmas Eve

We drove to Pensacola to spend Christmas Eve at my Sister-in-Law's house. Some pictures from the night:

Jack and Aunt Cindy

Would you just let me open my present?

Me...probably wondering where we are going to put all this stuff???

More Pictures of Disney World Trip

While waiting for the bus outside the resort.  Look at those eyes!

 

 

Jack being entertained by Grandpa.

 

 

At the playground

 

Jack didn't want to get too close to the mouse.

 

He really wanted to ride with his dad and Owen.  :(

 

Barely peeking over the dashboard.

 

Feeding the birds and annoying the other guests, I'm sure.

 

Self explanatory...

 

Love this picture of Jack in deep thought

Eight More Days

He can't wait!

5th Annual Bake-A-Thon

Today, I held the fifth annual bake-a-thon at my house. I think we spent the first two hours making appetizers and eating. The food was delicious. Around 1:00 PM or so, we got down to the "serious" baking!

Today's treats included:
Hawaiian Cookies
Walnut Crescents
Rum Balls
Chocolate Chip Raspberry Jumbles
Peanut Butter Balls
Tropical Snowballs
Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
Hidden Mint cookies
Brownies (courtesy of my niece)

I can't believe we've been doing this five years!

Christmas Card Outtakes



One year, instead of stressing over the perfect Christmas pose, I am going to just use the outtakes for our Christmas card. I'd certainly have a lot more photos to choose from if I did that!

First Annual Christmas Cookie Exchange

I have been wanting to host a Christmas cookie exchange for a few years now and finally decided to put one together. There were nine participants and everyone made a half dozen cookies per participant (packaged)and one dozen for display and sampling during the party. Of course, there were prizes, as well.


I just love to see all the ways each particpant chose to wrap her cookies. We had a really great time and I can't wait to host one again next year!

What is a post without these two?

Some Disney Pictures

Owen's Second Haircut

Jack's First Disney Haircut

Complete with Mouse Ears...

Ready to go have some fun now!

We're Back!


Okay, well we've been back for what? 10 days now! And I was doing so well blogging. I'm going to back date this post for my own sanity.

We had a great time on vacation! Both boys were able to get their hair cut at the Main Street Barber Shop in Disney World. Owen hasn't had a haircut since our last Disney trip when he was 11 months old and had his first haircut at Disney.

Of course, my camera battery died and I left the spare battery and the charger at home. My mother-in-law took hundreds of pictures and the Disney photographers were able to catch all the great shots, as well. So, I was safe. The picture above isn't the best one, but it's one I do have on my memory card.

We tried not to rush around and just enjoy the time we had. Next time, I'd like to stay 7 nights. Maybe 5 days at the parks and the other time just around the resort and shopping in Downtown Disney.