Happy New Year!

Wow! I had no intention of taking a vacation from my blog last week...it just happened. We were so busy - between playing with all the new toys and all THREE of us fighting colds - that I just never sat down to blog. Back to the old grindstone today, though and I'm actually glad to get into a routine again and, as much fun as it was to have Iz home for almost 2 weeks, I'm glad to get her back to school and ballet so she can be around kiddos her own age!

Here's a quick rundown of what you missed...Thursday, December 23rd was our first day of Christmas :) We made the trek up to Grammie and Bumpy's to celebrate with them. They spoiled Iz (and us!) rotten, of course, but what are grandparents for? Iz got great gifts including a cool Polly Pocket house, Tinkerbell and Silvermist dolls, a Littlest Pet shop carrying case, the new Tinkerbell movie and much more! Hubby and I got great stuff too - a new birdhouse, wooden cutting board, indoor/outdoor thermometer and some greenery :) Bumpy made an AWESOME pork roast for lunch, the weather was in our favor travel-wise and we had a wonderful time visiting!

The second day of our Christmas was Christmas Eve spent down at Auntie D's. The whole gang was there - lots of food, family and FUN! A perfect night! Iz received Zhu Zhu pets from Auntie D and her gang, a window art set from WW and her gang, watercolor pencils and paper from SnL and a new Barbie movie and $ from Nannie and Papa. We were home with plenty of time to get things ready for Santa's arrival :)

Christmas morning, much to my surprise, arrived much like every morning around here. I really expected this to be the year that Iz got up at the crack of dawn (or earlier!) all excited to open gifts but that was not the case. My girl likes her SLEEP and this mama is thankful for that! Hubby and I got up around 6:30 or so and got the coffee flowing and Iz strolled out a little after 7, sleepy eyed, but smiling and saying good morning. She rounded the corner and the light bulb went off - It's Christmas! She glanced at the tree and exclaimed, "Santa came!" Priceless :) We took our time opening stockings and gifts...taking things out of the packages as we went to be played with a little before moving on to the next thing. Between Santa and Hubby & I Iz did VERY well this Christmas - a dress-up box, new snowpants/boots/jacket, pillow pet, play-doh, books, cd alarm clock. board games, movies, a Wii and much much more!!! Cinnamon rolls were on the menu for breakfast and then Nannie and Papa came up for lunch. I made a ham, green beans, mashed potatoes and pecan pie....yum! The day was spent playing games and Wii and enjoying our new things.

That wasn't the end, though! Sunday, the 26th the big kids came down for lunch and we had a blast with that crowd!!! They were very generous with gifts for Iz - barbies and fairies and coloring books - and we were thrilled just to be able to all be together for Christmas. Plus, those kids are silly and FUN to be around!!! Iz loved having her big brother and sister around to play with and a good time was had by all :)

Whew! That was it. Sunday night brought the blizzard of 2010 which, honestly, wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It brought several inches of snow, an extra day off for Hubby and a chance for Iz to give her new snow clothes a try!!!

NYE was a pretty low-key event - a couple friends came over to hang out, we stayed up way too late and it took me a good 2 days to recover from my lack of sleep....I'm not as young as I used to be!

It would be nice to reminisce about the past year or think about all the possibilities for the coming year but, with TWO birthdays coming up in this house THIS WEEKEND, there's no time for that!!!! Maybe next week?

Happy New Year!!!