a package deal: Christmas & New Years

i have one word for Christmas this year: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

cause it was so much more than just plain super! it always starts at my aunt's house for christmas eve dinner and the singing of christmas carols. after that we drive down candy cane lane to see the houses with all the lights. {the kids' favorite is the one that you get to tune into the radio station and the music and lights coordinate...it's my favorite, too.} but this year, by the time we got home, Alec was out like a {christmas} light and would not wake up for anything. not even to open his christmas eve jammies. so we staged him for the photo...he couldn't be completely absent, that would just be wrong. angel and i still had a few gifts to wrap so i put the christmas music on and we wrapped like crazy. luckily the kids got up christmas morning at a decent time for me...7:30am {thank-you kids} they opened their stockings, ate a bunch of candy, and then we headed over to my mom's house with the rest of the fam. bubba was ecstatic to receive the huge Bakugan pack, grace fell immediately in love with her "just like me" American Girl doll {which, by the way, she named "Natalie" because it means 'christmas'?} and alec received his long awaited Ben 10 Alien Creator. life was good.

then we told all the kids we had one more christmas present for them and had them sit on the couch together. we put the DVD on and watched their faces as they one-by-one realized that WE were going on the Disney Cruise! they were super excited especially when we told them we were leaving in 12 days! woo-hoo!

and the 12 days seemed to fly by. the next day, my brother and his wife kathrine, and their kids riley and emma flew in and we exchanged gifts with them. the four little boy cousins got a 4-pack of transformer walkie-talkies which were a HUGE hit and they spent the rest of the day in different rooms communicating via bumblebee, megatron, optimus prime, and ratchet. grace got a beautiful china dress that matched cousin emma's.

before we knew it was new years eve and we were back at mom's for our mexican fiesta. we made homemade tamales, played a few rounds of Tripoly, and ate our hearts out till midnight.

{grace is the only one who lasted to ring in the new year...she felt like a big girl}

then we came back the next day cause we didn't stuff ourselves enough the night before. we had the best smorgasboard of all our favorite football-watching foods....sweet & sour chicken wings, blackbean/avacado/corn salsa, 7-layer bean dip, crab dip, meatballs, fruit salad, and so much more. pure bliss.

.....next post: the DISNEY CRUISE!