Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

We hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday this year!  We are very blessed as always and with every passing year we watch Christmas time become more and more magical for our two kids. We had a very nice Christmas this year and Brody and Briana were very well loved by everyone close to us. Tim also had almost two weeks off of work between Christmas and New Year's so that was great that we got to spend some extra time together as a family.

We let the kids each pick out a gift for Mom and Dad and a gift for each other this year. This was our first year doing this but will be a tradition as years go on.  The kids also do "class cash" at school where they earn "$" for good behavior over a month long period and then they are able to use the cash to buy gifts for their family. Brody did this last year also and this was Briana's first year doing it. I think this is one of my favorite parts of Christmas to see what the kids have picked out for Tim and I. They must spend an awful lot of time together because they both completely nailed it on their gifts for each other! :)

We spent Christmas Eve at Grandma Candy's followed by Grandma Diane and Grandpa's. The kids were so well behaved and waited nicely for their turns to open their gifts. They really are growing up right before our eyes.  The kids received many nice toys and clothes and were very happy with all of their new things. They were so excited this year for every part of Christmas and they kept asking how many days were left each and every day.  We always do an advent calendar so that is helpful but they were definitely on top of how many days were left in the countdown this year!

Christmas morning we woke up to find that Santa had come!  He ate the cookies and drank the milk we left out for him and he also took the carrots for the reindeer. The kids were so excited and very happy about all the nice presents that they received. They were very excited about their stockings this year and they must have been extra good because Santa filled them full!

Aunt Kimberly and Carter were able to spend some of Christmas with us this year which was great. Uncle Craig was also able to come in for a few days. Carter is growing and changing so much every time we see him, he is an absolute doll and we love him so much! It is so crazy to think he will be one before we know it, this year has flown by!

We had a nice dinner out as a family for New Year's Eve and then stayed in for the night. The kids had their own little party with their horns, hats and glasses. We did a countdown to midnight at 9 and everyone was in bed shortly after.

We have been pretty lucky with our winter weather and have only had one snow and pretty decent temperatures the past two months. It has been great and they kids have been able to spend lots of time outside which they love!  That all changed for us this past week. We have about 8 inches of snow on the ground and have had temperatures around -35 with the windchill. The kids have been begging for snow and now that we have it the temps are so low that they can't really enjoy it. School was cancelled for most of the week and we really haven't been on a regular schedule since before Christmas. Next week it looks like we will get some what of a warm up and things will start to thaw a little.

Not much else is new here. We are just trying to recover from the busy holidays and get back into our regular routine. We hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!