Christmas 2007

Ah, another Christmas has come and gone and we couldn't have asked for a better one (except to have Josh off the whole time). Lots of celebrating was enjoyed and with that LOTS of food eaten...hopefully I'll have money left over to buy that treadmill I have been wanting. We started the celebrating on Sunday, the 23rd with visiting with Josh's Grandmother, Aunt & Uncle and cousins. It was nice for everyone to sit have time to catch up and exchange gifts with the kids. Emaline had quite the time running around after all the her bigger cousins. All the kids got a long great and it was a fun evening for us. (Still waiting for the pictures of that night--hint, hint Angie).

Then the following night on Christmas Eve we went back over to Josh's parents house to do our family gift exchange. Emaline can't get enough of her cousin Madisyn and loves play with her, especially when Maddie likes to "play school" and teach Emaline stuff. It was classic. Everyone ate and drank merrily and we all got way too much stuff than we needed. I also had to open most of Emaline's presents since she really wasn't too interested in anything unless she was holding it.

As for our Christmas morning, you ask? Well Daddy came home from a long night of fighting crime to find Emaline in the living room eyeing her new goodies. Yes, Santa had indeed come to the house and dropped off a couple things he thought she would like. This included a new "big girl" chair, a new blankie, and some Little People. She loves them Little People! We then threw on our shoes and ventured over to Nana and Pepere's house while Josh slept. Of course it was the usual (and mighty tasty) cinnamon rolls for breakfast with an added sausage casserole for us meat eaters and on to the task for the day: destroying the living room with paper, plastic and boxes. Although we didn't break our record, we did end up opening gifts for roughly 3.5 hours. I love it and so did Miss Em--although, she didn't really respond to the opening of gifts, she did like what came from it. Then she had a nap, Josh came over and opened his gifts, then we went back home to get cleaned up and finally Emaline and I went back to have dinner. Christmas was definitely busy this year! Here are a few more shots of Christmas Day.

Rob Your Neighbor, Dec 22nd, 2007

Our annual "Rob Your Neighbor" shindig was this past weekend, held at Jack Patrick's downtown and yet again we have another year where we drink a little too much, eat a little too much and give crappy meaningless gifts to one another. It really is one of my favorite events of the year. Although, we did miss one of our girls this year, Liz, my heartfelt apologies go out to you since you missed getting a random empty bottle of booze and/or a Rubik's cube. Obviously this is a "gag gift" party and I'm sure all of you that have these types of parties (i.e., "White Elephant" or "Pass the Trash") know that much debauchery ensues. I must say, Josh and I had a great time (thanks for being sober driver, honey!) with friends that we haven't seen in far too long and getting to have some "adult fun". No bad party stories to tell, just good clean (somewhat) fun. I loved catching up with everyone and seeing all the great gifts brought to the table. What did we receive you ask? Well, I'll show you:

A lovely Cardinal home plate to hang on our wall and various old records, yeah for RYN!! We gave a completely 80s skort suit that my mother wore almost 20 yrs ago and various knick-knacks from the parent's basement. Here is the picture of Cara, who was fortunate enough to pick up that box with the suit in it:

It was a really fun night and I'm glad that we got to see our good friends. Merry Christmas everyone! Here are various pictures from the rest of the evening.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree!

Tonight Emaline and I decorated our Christmas tree. It was definitely the highlight of my day! Since this is her first Christmas where she really is trying to understand what is going on, it just keeps getting better and better. We unwrapped and unboxed all our ornaments and she watched as I strung the lights around it. This took way too long since I was constantly sweeping up the needles that continued to fall off the tree...wonder if the tree lot was the way to go this year. Usually my whole family goes to a tree farm out in Wright City, MO to cut down our tree. Its a great tradition we try to repeat every year, but since this past weekend was overtaken by the ice and rain, it just wasn't going to happen.

So, here we are 2 weeks from Christmas decorating a tree, I guess we should have jumped on that nicer weather! As I said before, I love Christmas time, but unfortunately with Josh's schedule we don't get to do much of this stuff together. He did get to sit with Emaline while she drank her milk and watched me light up the tree, but I didn't think about taking pictures until he left for work! Anyhow...my list is almost complete: Tree up? check. Lights up? check. Packages mailed to CA & MT? check. Christmas cards made? uh, skip to the next one. Gifts purchased?? half a check. Cookies & goodies baked? gettin' right on that. I'm almost there!!

The Ahmad Family Christmas

This past Sunday, my sister invited us to her in-laws Christmas. Unfortunately, Adham's mom has to have surgery next week and won't be available the week of Christmas, so his brother's wife and boys came into town to celebrate. It was really laid back and great to see Emaline interact with the boys. Tariq is 7 and Yousef is 4 and I think they didn't know what to do with Emaline! Although, they were very helpful when it came to decorating Stephani's tree. We had some great finger foods and desserts, yum.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but it is the holidays and we are super busy! Emaline is constantly shopping and spending all our money...

Here are some more pictures of our fun night at the Ahmad's home:

Ding Dong, the Rickety Wood Door is Dead!

I know I should have posted this weeks ago, but we finally got a new garage door and opener. No more guessing whether or not the door was going to open or not and/or hearing the "clankety clank" of the opener. Since Emaline's room is directly over the garage we opted for a quieter (if only a little) screw opener and since Josh has his work station up and running, we got an insulated door. It is so much easier AND we don't have to paint it! Woo hoo! Less work for us, that's aces in my book.