Merry Christmas 2008! click to hear santa list

I have not posted in a while. The holidays were so fun this year with the girls the ages that they are (4 and 3), that I think we actually took part in every tradition you could possibly do for the holidays, except attend midnight mass - which will come when the kids are older. Maybe there are a few things we missed, please let me know, but this is every fun and meaningful memory for me and hopefully for my kids. Each could be a blog entry, but I'm so far behind, I'll just mention each one and include some pics. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

- Had a fabulous turkey dinner for Thanksgiving in our new kitchen ala V, while going around the table saying things we are thankful for.
-Put up Christmas lights, decorated the tree, set up our nativity scene the day after Thanksgiving, we couldn't wait!
-Early Christmas celebration with my mom's side of the family with cousins, Mr. Chips the parakeet, Lil Tex the dog, and plenty of food and presents.
-Visited Santa at a Polar Express exhibit at the mall, and saw Santa again at our neighborhood PTA Christmas party
-Played in the snow!
-Decorated a gingerbread house with the girls (first time for the girls, and me too!)
-Had a few Christmas parties to attend through our church and even a neighborhood dinner party, which was so much fun! And skipped a few holiday parties to stay home with our family (a Christmas wish of our priest).


-Baked and delivered cookies to our neighbors, and received and ate way too many of our neighbors cookies and treats.
-Drove around and looked at Christmas lights three times with warm vanilla milk, including the 12 days of Christmas street.
-SA was an angel in her school Christmas pageant and had a line to say, "Today a savior has been born." It was our first star struck moment as parents. Of course, all cameras and recording devices failed, but she really did great!

-Visited a nursing home with other kids from our church to wrap gifts for the residents and eat cookies, and sing carols. We met Rosa that the girls really got to know and hugged when we left. Also, Innocentia was turning 99, and we sang Happy Birthday to her.
-Both girls were caroling angels in our church Christmas pageant on Christmas Eve at the Vigil Mass. We stayed afterwards for a beautiful Christmas Vigil Mass complete with ochestra performing Silent Night, Noel, Joy to the World, etc.

-Delivered gifts to our adopted family with other friends. Our adopted family was a father, mother, and two girls (4 and 6) and a baby boy, 9 mos. They welcomed us in and we handed out gifts and our girls stayed and talked to their girls. They were a sweet family and appreciative, and so great to teach our girls to give gifts instead of always receiving.
-Had a birthday party for Jesus, made Him cookies, and left some for Santa on Christmas Eve.
-Left a voicemail for Santa with our wish lists. (Click the title at the top of this blog entry to hear. Will take you to Box.net. Click on wav file. Click Open to listen.)
-Santa visited our house and left SJ a little 10" bike, and SA a kid's digital camera! They also got a Leapster to share! They must have been very good this year.

-Went to Nana and Papa's on Christmas Day to open more presents (new baby dolls) and eat lobster and crab legs - a Christmas tradition on my side of the family!
-Went to Galveston a few days after Christmas for almost a week to visit Gma and Gpa. V's parents' house is almost back together after Hurricane Ike, and we fished, cooked, played games, introduced the girls to my neice's and nephew's iPhone games (who needs a Leapster?) and listened to my nephew's awesome music (guitar, singing), played with Lillie the dog, and welcomed in the New Year with a Netflix movie. No champagne - I'm 7 mos pregnant, but everyone else opted out too. Just collapsed in bed at 12:01.


I am feeling very blessed and appreciative of this time with my kids while they are young and have really enjoyed the holidays. In fact, I'm kind of sad to see them go and have things get back to normal. But we have only about 10 weeks left before baby brother makes his debut, so I'm sure we can find something to do between now and then...