Christmas 2010

Christmas morning was great fun. We actually moved everything up by a day because Ellie was going to be at her Dads this year but it worked out great. December 23rd was our Christmas Eve and we tried to make it kind of special and incorporate a few family traditions, opening one gift being the favorite of course. Ellie put a lot of thought into what to leave Santa and his reindeers to snack on and had a really hard time falling asleep due to the excitement of Santa coming. The next morning Ellie and Scarlett woke up bright and early and we headed up stairs to check out the loot. It was a good year at our house. I think everyone got what they wanted and more thanks to all our generous families and friends. The girls had a great time opening presents and I had a great time eating too many cinnamon rolls. Robert even held off on cleaning up all the wrapping paper and boxes until after all the presents where open. As usual he bought me great gifts and I was reminded what a great thoughtful gift giver he is. One of my favorite things is going into mine and Robert's bedroom and watching him layout all his new gifts on the bed and leave them out all day to look at. My mom scored the best gift for Robert, a small dust buster vacuum that he took great joy in using that morning by vacuuming under all the furniture, but it didn't end there he went outside and raked some leaves and then washed the outside windows on the house and all before I had moved off the couch from eating food and organizing the gifts. I think my head would explode if I had that much energy and motivation to do stuff. Laying around in pajamas all day playing with kids and new stuff is where it is at. I took full advantage of the day and even Robert was able to relax and hang out.

We had a nice dinner at Robert's parents house that night and then sadly dropped Ellie off at her Dads. Not having her on holidays sucks especially when it is also my birthday but doing everything early worked out great. By the 25th we were done with Christmas and onto my birthday which I was dreading but Robert made it a great day. He took care of Mame all day so I got to sleep in, spend time with him laying around, read, watch movies, nap and eat take out chinese food on the floor while watching t.v. I was thrilled to receive many calls and texts wishing me a Happy Birthday. All in all it was a fun, happy and low key week.

As a small side note I want to mention that 2 days before Christmas our garbage disposal broke. With everything going on and moving our Christmas up a day we just left it until today when I couldn't take it anymore and went to Home Depot to buy a new one. Robert and I were hoping we could install it ourselves but when I got it home I realized it was going to be more than a 20 minute deal and not really Robert's thing so I decided to try and fix the broken one instead. Pliers, a screwdriver and then one funky allen wrench later I FIXED IT. No one in my house even saw me laying on my back under the kitchen sink tinkering around. Sucks. I want a picture. When Robert heard it going he ran upstairs and there were high fives all around. I knew Robert married me for a reason and now I can go return the new one and get my hundred dollars back. I rock.

Christmas 2010

Christmas festivities started out on a good note this year. For the first time ever in my lifetime we went to pick out our Christmas tree on a Sunday afternoon and it was sunny and warm enough that we didn't need to wear jackets let alone hats and gloves. Ellie and I fought over which tree to get but in the end I bullied her into picking mine and it was all good. I am still a fan of buying real trees because I love the smell in the house. We had a great time decorating even with my strong opinion on where all the lights and ornaments should go. Scarlett for some reason would not let me put her down so out came the Baby Bjorn which worked pretty well. If you noticed there are no pictures of Robert because his idea of decorating the tree is sitting downstairs watching football but since he took us to get the tree, paid for it, and brought all the decorations upstairs for us I excused him as long as he checked in on us every once in awhile. Tree decorating, hot chocolate, christmas music and the Grinch movie = a great night.

Thanksgiving in Washington

We headed up to Leavenworth, Washington for Thanksgiving this year. Robert's brother and wife recently moved up there and built this fabulous new house so all the Wrays went up to celebrate and see the new house and more importantly new baby Leo. It is quite a trek to get to Leavenworth especially in a snow storm but after flying into Seattle and driving 2 hours or so east we made it. Leavenworth is a really small town of about 4000 people and it looks like a small Swiss village. I think it is called "Little Bavaria" and lives up to that name. We had a great time with the Wray and Clennon (Cory's family) families. Good food, good drinks and good company not to mention large beautiful homes to spread out in. The only thing missing and it was a big thing was Ellie. She spent the holiday in California with her Dad and cousins but was sorely missed.

After a couple days in Leavenworth we headed down to Seattle to enjoy the city. The weather was great, sunny and not very cold, and we even had a fireplace in our hotel room and a water view. We shopped some great stores and Scarlett got to go on her first carousal ride. It was a nice little get away for the 3 of us.