Scenes of a wonderful Christmas

A little tree and ornaments just for Julianne! What a fun project Mimi!

Another shot of the holiday cuties and our new niece, Ella Grace

The new Plano - ites

Wow! A wondeful Ready Read Book from Gamma and Gumps - something that will be in use for a long time and a fabulous gift idea - fun and educational!

Jenna mostly ate and slept through her first Christmas, but Jules gave her this lovely Christmas bow to get her in the spirit!

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas - and we got it! Maybe this play session in thin pj pants and thin gloves was why we got bronchitis - ummmm, I need to learn how to dress myself and my kids for cold weather - the layering is just annoying in my opinion. Oh well.

Ohhh la la! A bike from Mimi and Papa which Julianne literally rides around in our house - around the circle of the downstairs. When it warms up maybe we can actually ride it outside! Great gift!

Santa brought the 3 requested items for our little Jules: The Swimming Puppy with goggles, the Pink Barbie house, and a ballerina mouse (how on earth did he find that?!?!) Great job Santa! Yes, our child has a lot of toys and yes she plays with them all - after all, it is her job to play.

Jens with her precious belly and in my favorite outfit.

OK, Santa does not get all of the cookies I decorated!!!

Check out the squash that was grown especially for Gamma!!! It was wonderful! The feast of squash, lamb, potatoes, sally lund bread and not to mention breakfast which was a fabulous cranberry ring and crostada (sp?) was all wonderful - really - Gamma cooked for like 24 hours straight (oh and her famous oatmeal cookes were a fave too) - and we very much appreciate the wonderful meals and sharing them with Mimi and Papa too. Thank you!

My cousin Ashley and her family stayed with us for 2 nights before Christmas and Julianne and Parker decorated cookies together and played pretty well. Ash made us some great pizzas, we ordered sushi one night, Jen came over with Ella Grace...

All in all, it was so nice to have so much company and family around.

We hope to have a Christmas Party next year with lots of new friends. I am not used to having to be so aggressive to meet people, but I am determined. I never realized quite how socially needy I must be (in terms of needing people like oxygen)...I guess I have always been spoiled to know people or have my parents around. I hate being alone now - I am SO grateful for our friends that we do have here and I am sorry if I call you too much! We think we found a chuch to plug in to, so that will help!!!

Now we get to look forward to Lauren and Andrew coming this weekend for a Dallas Stars game. Brent and Elizabeth come next weekend and we will hang with the Mills (Goooo Suppa Club (well, half of us!), and Neal, Lisa, Noelle, and Andrew come late Jan. Feb will bring the Lacey clan and Julianne's Birthday so lots to look forward to. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other until it feels like home....