Christmas time

Ok, so I know it was a month ago, but I have to post something about the holidays, right? Our holidays were wonderful, filled with friends and family and so many presents we have no idea where everything is going even now. We are truely blessed to have such loving and giving families. The kids had a great time with their cousins on both sides, spending Christmas Day with Jim's family, and then that we also went to see the Yogi Bear movie in the theater. It was Cari's first theater movie ever. She did pretty well, although I think she was a bit bored at times.....but she watched the movie and enjoyed it. We had a full weekend of fun and family over New Year's when we had Christmas with my family. The cousins all had a great time playing together. We arrived on Dec 30th and left on the 2nd, staying at Grandma's house that whole time. There was adult fun involved on New Year's Eve as we left all the kids to fend for themselves (ok not really....we had a sitter, and a really good one at that!), and went out for New Years dinner and celebrating. Unfortunately the night was cut a little short when the call came that one of the kids (one of my nieces) was throwing up. Great! ;o) Still not sure how, but our family escaped that one! The kids still had a great time, the next day was presents, and lots of good food and treats. Lots of Rock Band on the Wii and the kids played their stuff too. They also did all sorts of projects. Grandma got each of the grandkids (except the 2 littlest ones) Shrinky Dinks (remember those???), and you should have seen those 9 kiddos (poor little G wasn't up for it) around the table coloring and cutting those little plastic pieces! It was cute! It was hard to get back into a normal routine after having so many days off and fun days, but Jan 3rd brought back to work and back to school. JJ was ok with it, since he LOVES school, but mom and dad weren't so excited. And for the record...when JJ got home, Cari was still napping. She was asleep until I got home at 4:45 or so.....when she woke up, the first thing out of her mouth was "OH JJ Your HOME!" Gotta love that! Here are a few pictures from the weekend: