Merry Christmas, ya Filthy Animal. And a Happy New Year!

We had a chilly but nice Christmas & New Year in the Great White North! The kids are at such a fun and magical age, especially at Christmas, and it was fun to experience Christmas with them. We had such a great time with Trevor's family and friends....I wish we were all closer, the flights were cheaper, or that 15 hours in the car was more tolerable. We had WAY too much good food (which I'm now eating healthy and exercising every morning to undo!) and stayed up WAY too late every night (although the kids slept in until 9 am, so we also SLEPT in every morning too!). Anyway, I could go on, and on. Here's the rundown of the holidays...

CHRISTMAS EVE

Jace & Brooklyn "helping" Grammy with preparations for Christmas dinner. By "helping", they splashed in the water the turkey was defrosting in. I know, very sanitary!

Christmas Eve night we got together with "Auntie Jen" and her family for some dinner. (We missed you on your Birthday, Dad!)

Jace & Brooklyn LOVED going to Auntie Jen's house and the girls loved playing with them. Here they are at the kids table eating their dinner.

Here's our annual family picture in our Christmas Eve jammies. I got Trevor and I footy pjs and the kids got Toy Story & Tinker Bell ones.

I love Trevor's feet. My mom made sock monkeys just like that! (Trevor was a little less enthusiastic about the pjs, I thought they were super comfy although not the most flattering! I just hated that every time I had to go to the bathroom I had to half undress myself. It's COLD up there!)

CHRISTMAS MORNING

Jace was very enthusiastic about his presents, especially his stocking! He was sad he didn't get to see Santa when he delivered the gifts, but was excited for what he left! He was more into opening presents this year instead of playing with each one as he got them, but when there weren't any more presents to open, he wanted everything out of the boxes and batteries to make them work!

Brooklyn was excited too, although she probably could have taken all day opening presents if Jace wasn't so excited about it. She wants to be just like her big brother!

She's so laid back...just playing with each little toy she got.

Jace is demonstrating to sissy how to properly blow-dry her ponny's hair.

Jace by all of the presents...

NEW YEARS EVE

We spent New Years with family, friends, and insanely good food at a community hall up there. We played games and ate way too much food.

Jace & Brooklyn were so good! They even stayed up until midnight without driving us crazy! When we were all yelling "Happy New Year!" Jace kept asking whose birthday it was and if he would get some birthday cake.

Chrissy (and Vickie) played with the kids most of the evening, which is probably why they were so good! The kids just love their cousins!!

NEW YEARS DAY

Brooklyn was so generous with her kisses to Sarah! Grammy & Jen got one the whole time, and Sarah got tons and tons!

Eric (family friend) serenaded us all with his guitar and made up silly songs about everyone.

Jace playing with Uncle Jeff and his cousins Brody & Mason.

Grammy, Sarah, and Brookie.

The kids playing with Chrissy again (where was Vickie when all of these pictures were taken?!). I kind of felt bad for the girls because the kids would maul them every time we were together and didn't want anything to do with Trevor or I (which was really nice, don't get me wrong...)

Trevor with his Dad! They had so much fun playing some old-school Nintendo games that my brother-in-law got for the x-box. They were just like little boys. And I may or may not have been like a nagging mother to them once in awhile. I'm pretty sure the x-box brings out the worst in me!

Jace Cheesin' it. Love that boy!!

Priceless.

Jace has learned how to sign "I Love You" and does it frequently. Melts my heart every time.

Cindy (Behr, a really close family friend) and her grandbaby snuggling..

Well, sorry about the picture overload, but I had too many to choose from and probably didn't post a lot that I should have. We are so grateful for our families, and that we were able to spend time with the Zezula's over the holidays! They were such gracious hosts and we loved every second we were there. Now it's on to reality.

Hope you all had a VERY Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!!!