What a treat! We loved having the unexpected day off last week… Mike came home REALLY early and we spent some time watching the inaugural festivities and planning our trip out into the snow. Alyssa was glued to the windows and patio door, fascinated with the new white blanket.

We enjoyed walking around for a bit, but the munchkin is getting more stubborn lately (here come the terrible twos, I think) and fights us every time we put gloves or hats on her. We could only go out for a few minutes at a time. We all went for a walk in the evening, sans hat and gloves (we clipped her jacket arms closed so she wouldn’t be completely exposed to the weather for our short trip) and enjoyed the clear evening while we could. Of course, Alyssa INSISTED on walking without holding our hands and promptly face-planted in the icy snow. See the pics for post-walk facial scrapes… obviously, THE END of our fun in the snow.

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Also included are some pics of the sunset that day through the trees in our back yard.

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We had a really nice Christmas. I hope everyone else did, too! We got lots of great gifts and really enjoyed watching Alyssa. She is really good at unwrapping gifts at this point and will gladly help you open yours as well! We found that she wanted to play with each gift as it was unwrapped, so it actually too her several days to get through all of her gifts. I guess we should be thankful for that… at least we know she is enjoying what she was given! She has been having lots of fun with her puzzles, tea set, tent, tub toys, laptop, pull toys,…. you name it!

We had two Christmas dinners at our house this year. The family came over the Saturday before to do Christmas with Mama. Unfortunately, she was too sick to come (and also to sick to make the trip north to vist Uncle Chris and his family), but we all enjoyed Sauerbraten,  Red Cabbage and Kartoffel Klöße (potato dumplings), traditional German food that Bompa (my grandfather) used to make for us on Christmas. Yummy! We also had Christmas Day dinner here… I made an oven- roasted chicken with stuffing and veggies. So tasty!

We were all so busy enjoying the time together that we took almost no pictures. I’m not even sure if I got out the video camera at all! Here’s what I did manage to get…

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Mike was actually home with us on Christmas Eve this year! What a treat! I have been so used to him having to work on these holidays that I almost didn’t know what to do with myself… Almost. We had a nice lunch out and hung around the house. We even made a point to get outside and enjoy the lovely weather.

Mike also wanted to rake some of the leaves and pine needles from the back yard so that the grass could come up in the spring. He was pleasantly surprised when a little helper decided to give him a hand! I really mean one hand because she wouldn’t put down her juice, so she only had one to spare until she rolled up her sleeves and really got down to business. See what I mean?

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Wow. I used to think we had been slack with the posts. These past few months have proven to be even worse! I am so sorry we haven’t been more forthcoming with the pictures… I just haven’t felt like myself in a while. Here’s hoping that the new year helps to give me a new perspective on things!

What you’ve missed (or, what I have failed to tell you)…

• Michael turned 30 and my parents celebrated their 30 year anniversary on September 9th. Yes, the same day! He was actually born on their wedding day. If that doesn’t say kismet, I don’t know what does!
• My 29th birthday in October… YIKES! counting down to the big 3-0!
• Mike’s head injury. Let me set the scene… the weekend after Thanksgiving, in the attic to get out Christmas decorations, roofing nails poking through the ceiling… well, you get the picture. It was a little stressful since it happened on a Saturday AFTER the local urgent care was closed. And we had a napping toddler. And there was blood. I think I handled myself fairly well considering it was my first family “emergency” without my mom to clean up the blood! All it took was a few hours, some quick changing of the guard (thanks to some great neighbors and quick response time by Ashleigh to keep an eye on Alyssa while we were out), some antibiotics, a tetanus shot and some Dermabond to get his head back to normal. (At least, normal for Mike!)
• Jeff came for a quick visit. He was in NC on business and decided to stop by. He and Mike even got to go see “Quantum of Solace!”
• As mentioned in a previous post, I got hooked into the “Twilight” phenomenon. I am already almost done with my second reading of all of the books. The movie was GREAT and I can’t wait for the next installment!
• Alyssa has become a daredevil! Any time we take her to the park now, she takes off for the slide and can’t wait to throw herself down it! We literally have to hold onto her to keep her from hurting herself. She’s still not wild about the swings for any length of time, but she enjoys it for a little while now!
• We had family portraits taken… see below!

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