Christmas Festivities

Welcome to 2012!  I feel like I'm just getting caught up with the rest of the world today....  I sort of missed the end of 2011 and had a pretty crappy beginning to 2012.  Starting on Tuesday night (the 27th), I got a stomach bug.  And today I'm finally feeling human again.  I'll spare all the details, but it was fairly horrible.  And I was sad that I missed some quality family time since Bryan had all of last week off work.  {Which thankfully he did, because he might have had to stay home otherwise.}  We had a good Christmas though before I got sick!

We started with a trip to the Children's Museum the weekend before Christmas to see Santa Claus.  I can not say it enough how much I love that place!  Jack had a blast of course.  And Bryan and I used the Saturday opportunity to have a yummy lunch in Dundee.

The next day we got to catch up with my friends, Christy & Laura.  We tried to snap a few pictures of all of our kids.  But as you can see, it wasn't entirely successful.  The "baby girl gang" was much easier to photograph.  Of course, they can't run away yet.

 In between all the Christmas preparations, Maddie turned 6 weeks old.  And we managed to catch the first smile picture.  It's subtle, but it's there.

We prepped for Christmas by making homemade gifts for the Grandparents and yummy treats of Sea Salt Fudge and Toffee Bark.  The gift this year was reindeer footprints.  As you can see, Jack has his Daddy's feet with extremely high arches.  It was pretty cute with tiny baby feet too.  Wish I would have planned ahead a little better though and had the right color of paints!

Finally...  Christmas Eve was here.  Before heading to church, we got our annual family pictures in front of the Christmas tree (kind of).

Maddie's First Christmas

Probably one of my most favorite family pictures yet!

This is a 4 year-old's version of fun pictures.

Our family tradition, which is very similar to the traditions both Bryan and I had growing up, is to open gifts from one another on Christmas Eve after supper.  Then there are more gifts in the morning after Santa has visited!

Maddie's first Christmas - She slept while Jack opened all her gifts.

Love this picture as it captures the true excitement!  Santa brought him just what he asked for - a Cars 2 Battlestation Playset Boat.

And here's to more excitement, fun, and family time in 2012!