Good Bye 2008 & Happy Birthday Allegra

The post-Christmas aftermath was relatively peaceful - we did some shopping, lots of cleaning, and some organizing. On Tuesday all six of us went and got haircuts (it actually went really smoothly). It had been over a year since the girls had had cuts and it was Colin's first, although I couldn't allow myself to let any length be taken off yet. Hopefully once the baby arrives I can let go of Colin's "babyness" a little bit. New Year's Eve was a casual affair. We spent the day cleaning up Christmas stuff in the house, although that didn't get finished until the Saturday after New Year's, while the kids played with their new stuff. Allegra opened cards and announced herself Birthday Girl immediately with a homemade ribbon she taped on herself. We are saving her presents for her party (this Saturday at Ice World) but we did get her an ice-cream cake from Dairy Queen and sang to her. She is so excited to be seven. We spent the night at Nana and Papa's house, to the kids' delight, and rung in the new year playing the Wii. The kids slept over, so James and I got to sleep in on New Year's Day and then go for breakfast at Starbucks and to Babies 'R Us to register, all kid-free. It was so fun.

Christmas Day Pictures

I think I was the one who had the most trouble sleeping on Christmas morning, but that kind of comes with the territory when I'm pregnant. I finally allowed myself to get out of bed at 6:15 but no one else was up so I snuck into the kids' bathroom and curled my hair to pass the time. Finally around 7 I had made enough noise to wake everyone up LOL. The kids were so excited to see all the new presents, and most importantly of all, Santa's presents. We had a very nice morning of gift-opening and listening to Christmas music. After we had wrapped up the chaos at our house we got dressed and headed over to Nana and Papa's house for more gift-opening and Christmas dinner. We had ham, crab, Stollen, and lots of other good things. It was a wonderful Christmas - the kids got the presents they asked for from Santa (Hero - a Furberry, Allegra - a Swim to Me Rescue Puppy, Ian - a Leapster video game unit, and Colin - a Handy Manny tool set) plus ice skates for the girls, a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse race track set for Ian, a watch for James, and diamond earrings for me, and a Nintendo Wii for the entire family. It was a blessed Christmas, physically and spiritually.

Christmas Eve Pictures

Here is a few of the pictures we took from Christmas Eve. The kids were ever-so-patient as they waited to open their single Christmas Eve present. After preparing Santa's cookies and milk and tracking him on the Norad website we all settled in with the fireplace on to watch Holiday Inn. I can't believe the kids stayed awake for the entire movie. After it was over they slumber-partied in our bedroom, which they think is great fun but is actually a clever way to monitor who's up when and where they're going LOL.