Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Hope your Christmas was a good one! We spent a wonderful Christmas eve relaxing at my brother/SILs house, with their two boys and our girls. They have an inflatable trampoline downstairs, which is a favorite activity for the girls. We ate some great food. Smoked salmon, multiple yummy cheeses, shrimp, crackers, DESSERTS -- I think we need to cut down the the dessert selection next year. Holy sugar, batman! Pumpkin bars, lemon bars, pecan bars, Christmas cookies. We all had a sugar hangover the next day.
Christmas morning was spent watching the girls open their presents. This year's big one from Santa was a pottery throwing wheel. It's a fairly decent one, compared to most "toy" wheels, so we'll see how well it goes. I gave it a try, and remembered how much fun I had in that elective pottery class I had in college my senior year. There's nothing like flatwater canoeing and pottery to round out a college degree. :-) The girls also got lots of books, a large ocean-themed canopy that hangs for the ceiling (in which to read and play), a tea set and "royal" capes that go down to the floor. I'm so jealous! :-)
We went to Mass at 11:30, where one of our Cantors did a kick-a job of singing "Sweet Baby Jesus." The Cantor is white, but you wouldn't have known it had you closed your eyes and just listened to soul in her voice. WOW. Then we said a special prayer that our visit with Keith's parents would go well.
And it did. We had a pleasant visit, a really good Christmas dinner, and some laughter shared around the living room. Nadia was a total ham while we were there. She has finally warmed up to her grandparents, which makes things a lot more relaxed. Up until just recently, we couldn't get her to say boo around them. She warmed up so much on Christmas that she informed us that she was going to stay with Grandma and Grandpa, instead of coming home with us. We were all left to get in the truck, while she stayed in the house with Keith's parents, confident in her choice to stay. She wasn't happy when Keith returned to get her. BIG points for us with his parents, that she wanted to stay.
Keith has been on vacation from work this week, enjoying time with the kids, while I work in the office. It's our busy season (year-end gift giving is at its highest right now), so I've been earning a little extra money. I would rather be home with the family.
Well Keith just got back from x-country skiing, so I'll end for now. Happy New Year everybody!