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This website will officially be inactive after this post.  We have moved our blog to gasbarrocircus.blogspot.com.  Please join us as our story continues.

So This is Christmas

We had the best plans for Christmas this year.  There were going to be cookies, crafts, Santa letters and the list goes on.  What did we get?  The FLU!  Oh yes, Penelope brought it home on Thursday, gave it to Adelaide first, then came GG and my turn came on Christmas Eve.  Of course that meant that none of the things that I wanted to do happened and I was lucky that by Christmas morning I was at least able to keep my food down.

Looking for Santa

Here it is Christmas morning and Santa was here!  Lots of presents under this year, there were shrinky dinks for A and Auntie K, a Zombie lunchbox for Grant, Little People for P, knitting gloves for GGB, cookbook for Grr, a picture book for YaYa and jewelry for this Mommy.  Of course everyone in this family is spoiled rotten so those were a few of the many presents under the tree.  You would think that I would have listed A's new bike, but surprise she could have cared less.

After our morning of presents at home we took a little break and then headed over to YaYa and Grr's for another present stop and a mac and cheese brunch.  The girls got a new house, a grill and most importantly for P, new shoes.  After all of the present excitement we had to go home for a nap before returning later for dinner.  Good thing we only live a few houses away.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Happy New Year.

Gangs All Here

That's right, the gangs all here for Christmas or at least the weekend.  Adelaide was just about bouncing off of the walls waiting for her cousins to get to her house and when they were finally here there wasn't a moment wasted.  Gifts, time at the park and lots and lots of play time around the house.  After all of the playing there was one more surprise for the kids...a man in a big red suit.  How many people can say that Santa was at their house?  I can only imagine the arguments at school over this one.

Cousin sleep over 

A lot of Gasbarro on one couch.

Pap and his new book.

Hey, that's Penelope's.

Sometimes we just need a little nap. 

Oh my goodness.

Thanks for the visit everyone, we know Memphis and Fairhope are far away, but we will remember this Christmas for a long time.

A Month of Traditions

A new house means a new place for our big tree, but the traditional ornaments stay the same.  My poor husband has to listen to me tell stories of ornaments each year.  There are the 32 year old ones that were mine when I was a baby, the 13 year old one that I gave Grant for our first Christmas together and so many more.  I do have a few favorites on my tree and those are the frames that grow each year.  We have new pictures of baby girls and pictures of those that we keep in our memories.  It is amazing how one 9 foot tree can make me smile and cry at the same time.  I will tell you that this was the first year that my tree wasn't completely in the way and I wish that I could keep it up all year long.

 We also had Grandma in town for all of these moments in December.

 Adelaide learned all about Elf on a Shelf which was a great benefit to the parents of one child who would rather talk then eat.  It's just a little harder to keep up with all of the flying then I thought it would be.

We have a very crafty family and Aunt Marilyn took the cake this year.  When a shoe sized box arrived on our doorstep I thought it was a gift that was supposed to put under the tree until Christmas.  It wasn't until a few days later that I noticed a sticker that said Open Me Now.  So I followed the directions and inside were all of the ingredients for funny Christmas cookies.  Sadly I am not exactly a cook or a baker so this task had it's entertaining moments.

There is one event during the holidays that Grant and I are never invited to and that is Breakfast with Santa at the Golf Club.  For the last few years my folks have been taking the girls on their own and in no way are we invited.  Since we aren't invited I don't have any pictures from the event, but I heard they had a fabulous time.