Christmas Break

We did lots of fun stuff over the Christmas break. We truly enjoyed our time off from school and work.

Dec. 28: bowling at Jack and Jill's

Dec. 29 Lazy day- everyone on their iPod

 Dec. 30: Going to church in our new Christmas dresses.

Dec. 31: On New Year's Eve, in the morning, we went to Chuck E. Cheese. I had coupons that were going to expire, and it was a great way to start this special day.

  They loved the water shooting game because they could earn so many tickets.

Dad and Dave were so awesome to install our new storm door- DURING A STORM! We were so lucky to find the exact right one I wanted- tan with bronze knob- when we were at Home Depot. It looked like we were going to have to special order it, and then we found it in another place. YEAH!! I was sooo happy. Then Dave K. installed the new doorknob on my birthday. Thanks guys!!

Kathy's Birthday

So, I had a big birthday this year. Yes, I will admit, I turned 40, but I still feel like I'm in my 20s.
I thought of my favorite activities, and planned out my special day.
On the 26th, we made cards, ate pizza, played games, and did lots of visiting.

 The kids had lots of fun. Thank you mom for taking all the pictures!

We were going to try and have birthday cake at 12:41am, but we just couldn't make it. SO we did it at 12:41 Eastern time instead :)

On my birthday, we went to the matinee of Les Miserable and then to Olive Garden for lunch. It was the Foxes, Sinemas, Dave & Elaine, and Pete & Andrea. We had a lovely lunch. The funniest part was when we first got seated and the waitress was asking how we were doing/ what movie we went to, Dave responded by singing the answer. It was HILARIOUS (and he sounded really good too.)

Christmas

It's our Christmas Eve Eve tradition to have a sleepover in the living room, under the lights of the Christmas tree.

We made some new ornaments for the tree this year- the Scrabble words. It was really fun!

I love my plain old fashioned Christmas tree. Everything on it has a memory and is meaningful in some way. We are up to 19 Halmark ornaments- one for each year. I remember when I was a teenager I was so annoyed and embarrassed by our Christmas tree. It was full of kid-made ornaments. Nothing matched or even looked pretty. Hopefully mine isn't that bad, but compared to those I see in other homes and at the stores, etc, mine is pretty ugly and boring and I absolutely love it.

Christmas morning...

 The aftermath...

Then we got to enjoy a late Christmas morning breakfast with the Smiths (at our house).