Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Where does the time go? I guess if I didn't waste so much time taking care of small children, I could blog more often! I'll have to work on that in 2008! ;)

Let's see...where to start...Okay, I guess I'll just pick up at Christmas and go from there. When we first moved to Ohio, we decided we'd stay here for Christmas and head to MD to ring in the New Year. We felt it was important for the kids to wake up in their own beds on Christmas morning, rather than having them worry about how Santa would find them, etc. It's tough being away from our family, but it's very nice to leisurely open presents, have breakfast and let the kids play with their new toys without rushing out to visit 3 different families in one day. No offense, parents! :) We do miss you!

The kids gave us the best present ever on Christmas morning: they woke up at 7:45, a full half-hour later than they usually get up! They were delighted to find that Santa had indeed visited:While he didn't bring them a real dog (as I promised he would not because Santa does not bring people a dog if they already have a cat), he did bring them each a Webkinz dog. For the uninitiated, Webkinz are stuffed animals that come with an identification tag which allows you to register on the computer and take care of them on a really cool website. It's fun and very educational. I'll write more about that later. Anyway, Kathryn got a Dalmation that she promptly named "Spot", Juliana got a Yellow Lab that she named "Golden Retriever" (apparently she thought it was a Golden Retriever; when she discovered otherwise, she decided to use the name "Sunny" on the computer, but she still calls the stuffed animal Golden Retriever) and Alexander got a Black Lab with which he is completely uninterested. He'd much rather make off with Spot when Kathryn isn't looking. Aren't they cute?!
The puppies were just the beginning of a very fun morning. They had a ball opening their gifts. Kathryn was thrilled with her little Lego's and played with them while wearing her new Dalmation costume,
Juliana spent the afternoon in her Cinderella dress playing with the Puppy in my Pocket Castle,

and Alexander had a blast vrooming his new cars around the furniture while wearing his new Cars slippers.

New slippers

Doggy slippers

Go Bucks!

Alexander requesting "pish"

Round one of operation clean-up

We enjoyed a yummy breakfast of baked french toast, bacon, bananas and strawberries. (Note to self: use maple syrup next time; the corn syrup was too hard and stuck in our teeth too much.)

The kids spent the afternoon playing while Nate and I tidied up and prepped for company.

The final carnage

Since our first year here, we've invited our neighbors over for dessert on Christmas night. It gives me something to look forward to and helps alleviate some of my homesickness. Each year, we have 4-5 families come over for a drink, some goodies and good old-fashioned friendship. This year, the Carius', Clarks, Robersons and Tayades joined us. I served double-layer pumpkin pie, dutch apple pie, pecan pie and assorted cookies and candy that I made, including: unbaked cookies, snickerdoodles, M&M cookies, magic bars, almond bark with peanuts and M&Ms and peanut butter fudge. We had a great time and I love this tradition. (Note to self: cut down on the pies next year; it's just too much. Apple was the favorite and cut a slice out of the pumpkin so the bottom layer is visible.)

Okay, folks, I've got a lot more to say, but I have small children to feed so Happy New Year and I'll be back soon to regale you with tales of our trip to Maryland. Until next time...