Strap on your seatbelts...

...this is gonna be one heck of a post.

When it's over, it's over.  And Christmas is indeed over.  So I will attempt to document a whole month's 'doings' in one post. 

It's gonna be long and picture heavy. 

Crazy?  Maybe. 

A little much?  Absolutely. 

But this girl's doing it anyway.  I can't fathom having to do another post about Christmas later this week.  We took our tree down on Sunday and we have moved on, and therefore my blog will do the same.

Don't get me wrong, we LOVED Christmas around here!  It's the most wonderful time of the year! 

And the busiest.

Our family hosted our Christmas Cookie Decorating Party again this year and I must say that it has become one of our most favorite events of the holiday season.  We love having all of our friends and family over for one big sugary mess!

sisters - Sal Gal and Big Al (preggo and due in March!!)

And I guess we complained about the hot weather long enough that is actually listened to us and got colder.  A lot colder.  So many days were spent inside getting creative -

like making snowman crafts wearing old, hand-me-down Halloween costumes.  Because that is completely normal.

Other days we just stared out the window and pretended we were outside.

And then we found a new life for the window clings.

Kate had her very first preschool Christmas program.  It was a big hit and I experienced that 'proud mommy' feeling that just can't be beat.

This is the moment right as Santa is about to pick her up.  I love this picture because you can see in her eyes just how incredibly excited she is to be on her way to his lap.

3 generations that would be 4, but I'm the one takin' the picture.

We also added to our family over the holiday season and got ourselves some ADF's. 

Meet Monster and Griddle. 

This year we had a pajama party at church in the children's department.  It was a lot of fun and I'm hoping they do it every year!  It would be a great tradition!



Baby Jesus got lots of attention





We took Kate back to Disney this year for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.   She loved the roller coasters the most, even Thunder Mountain!


I can't wait to take Hamp one day!

Moving right along...

We had our Christmas party for M to the Izz-A's side of the family the weekend before Christmas.

Abbi, Brittany,  and me

Oh, and as you may can tell, I added a few more highlights back to the ol' mane, on the same day as this party to be exact.  I missed them.  They are my hair bling.  And this girl needs bling.




And since it was Hamp's first Christmas, we played GQ dress-up, of course...

...and played with the ornaments while hanging out under the tree.

Christmas Sunday was a crazy morning.  I realized it was Christmas Sunday while laying in bed around 11pm the night before.  For some reason I had it in my mind as the following Sunday.  Wrong.  So Sunday morning we rushed around getting our Christmas attire ready, well the kids' at least.  M to the Izz-A and I just pulled out something that we hoped we hadn't worn recently to church and just called it our Christmas outfit. 

Sunday lunch at Mimi's

Kate loved baking a birthday cake for Jesus last year, so we did it again this year.  Wait.  Actually last year it wasn't so much of a cake as it was chocolate bark.  We wrote "Happy Birthday, Jesus" on our chocolate bark with red and green icing and used it as the cake.  Some of you may remember that from last year's Christmas post.  But this year was an actual cake.  It's something we'll continue for years to come.  And Kate let me know that, "Jesus likes lots of sprinkles."  Well then.

Christmas Eve night we threw out our reindeer food for Rudolph and his friends

and set out cookies and milk for Santa.

Christmas morning brought smile after smile.

 Hamp loved his toys that Santa brought for him.

Kate even helped him open some of his gifts.  She truly is the best big sister ever. 

Hamp, goin' in for a bite.

Kate got lots of artsy stuff, which is right up her alley!

cousin Kennedy and fam came by for a visit

And around lunchtime we headed over to my parent's, Papa and Gaga's.

I had to post this because my mom looks EXACTLY like my grandma (her mom) in this pic.  EXACTLY. 

We continued our tablecloth tradition this year.  It's so neat to look back on drawings from years past. 

And then we looked and Sal Gal had written 2012 as the beginning of her tablecloth masterpiece...

WHAT?

Our younger sis, Big Al, promptly called her out and we all looked at her in confusion.  She had no explanation. 

Just got a little sidetracked?  Not thinking clearly?  Wishing for a speedy 2011?  Who knows?!

So she worked hard to fix it and make it read the proper year, 2010.

Enough said

B-ball with Papa

cousins

Hope you all had a very, Merry Christmas!

Now I'm looking forward to New Year's - spending time at the lake with some great friends.  Not so much for the lake, more for the friends. 

And I really should go grocery shopping now, which is what I should've done instead of typing this post, because I seriously just considered making Kate a sandwich out of Cheez-Whiz.



Even more sad?  That actually sounds kinda good right about now.