Christmas 2008!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!

I have been wanting to do this post since Christmas . . . but where we live does not have that great of internet-ness, and it takes 10 minutes (at least) to upload one picture . . . and so . . . a year has passed and I am finally complete! Yay!

We celebrated the Sunday before Christmas with Shane's immediate family. Opening gifts and such! It was fun! There are two little ones (Alyson and Bryce) which always make things more cheery and lively!

Dan and Marissa with their cute little niece, Bryce! She is getting so big! She is almost 5 months old and found her feet (which she sticks in her mouth), is talking (jibberish, but cute jibberish), broke a tooth (meaning . . . it popped out of her gums . . or so I've heard), is being extra cute!! (she smiles A LOT and blows bubbles and imitates what you do) . . . . she is just the cutest and I am so excited we get to grow up with her!

Here are Sommer and Bry opening Bryce's gifts from Uncle Dan, Uncle Shane, Aunt Marissa, and me. Bryce was sleeping . . but I think Bry and Sommer were more excited than she would be now. We got her a mirror sing a long thing and a jumperoo!

She loved it!! Still a little too small to reach the ground, but once she does, she'll be jumping all over the place! For now she enjoys the lights and sounds and objects!

Christmas Eve Morning we started a tradition with my girl friends from high school where we all get together. . . last year we got together and made fudge and exchanged presents. . . this year we met at Kristen and Mase's new apartment and had breakfast and exchanged gifts!

We did a secret santa gift exchange thanks to elfster.com (and KC's good find). Katie got KC, and gave her a bunch of goodies, but one of my favs was this pic of Mase and KC (apartment roomies) . .. this picture was from our cruise where we were all sitting on the bed in our hotel in New Orleans, and it just seemed like such a great family portrait pic . . . so KT photoshopped the rest of us out and put a nice teal background. It is so funny! I love it!

Another fav is the awesome art piece KT made for KC. She cut the wood, sanded it, and painted it!! She is so artistic!! One ability I am not quite so good with . . . so then we all told KT we want her to make us one . . hint, hint! :-P

KC had Mase. You can see she got a Mercyhurst mug (her alma mater), Pride and Prejudice movie (i think), the office desk calendar, some type of garlic hand washer, and something else . . . I can't remember or see.

I had Nikkie! I got her a bottle of Pink Catabwa wine, a bath and body works soap, sex and the city (the movie), a framed pic of all us girls on the cruise in our formal wear, a purse filled with 4 different opi nail polishes, a buffer, and a file! The nail stuff will come in handy to show off her ENGAGEMENT RING!! Congrats Nikkie! Nikkie also had me for secret santa gift exchange! She got me some stress relief/sleeping lotions, some bath oil, muffin mix, caramel hot cocoa, some yummy smore bar mix, and pennstateopoly!

Mase had KT! She got some trouser socks, a very KT necklace, a fun cup, and some other stuff!

We went to church at 4pm on Christmas Eve. It was a perfect time for us, and was very fun! I love singing Christmas songs and it was Bryce's first Christmas!! How freaking cute does she look in that outfit?! I love it! And mommy and daddy are so cute toO!

After church we headed over to my Aunt Cindy's (dad's sister's) house, where Santa made a stop. Santa brought all kinds of presents!

I believe last year Ava was scared of Santa, but not now!! What a big girl!

So then we meandered over to my Grandma Lou's (mom's mom's) house! Santa also made a visit there! It is so crazy because my grandma's house does not fit 50 of us . . the family keeps growing! So once you find a seat you can't get up because you will lose it. It's like a game. It's fun.

Shane REALLY wanted to open presents Christmas Eve (actually even before that, but I told him Santa wasn't ready . . he still needed to get the elves to wrap everything). . . he was just dying to see what I got him. . . and I can just never stay up late and I wanted to open them ON Christmas . . . well Shane said that technically it WAS Christmas day when we got home, so I stayed awake and we exchanged our presents for each other.

I got all kinds of good stuff! I got a cupcake book, a new scarf, some new (very cute) outfits, an inspirational calendar for my wall at work, a cranium desk calendar for at work, some outside/inside car washes from Delta Sonic, turtle fur for skiing and being in Erie, and the Sex and the City movie. (p.s. - those are not our curtains . . . )

Shane got new black sketchers shoes, a t-shirt from Cozumel, some snickers, white tee, button down shirt, brown jacket, grey sweater, an indoor helicopter, and I surprised him that we are going to Salt Lake City, Utah to ski!! So we finished with our presents at 1am "Christmas Day".

However, Shane wanted to play with his new toy! And so did the kitties!! They were chasing it all over the place! It was quite a scene to watch!

I don't really have any pictures of the rest of our Christmas celebrations, but we ended up celebrating Christmas like 10 different times this year!! Craziness!! So glad we don't have to drive 14 hours anymore!! Home, sweet Erie.