Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We started out over at Lisa and Mike's house on Christmas Eve. Lisa had a wonderful dinner for us, and it was so much fun to see the excitement in Sam, Elizabeth and Olivia's eyes as they talked about Santa coming. Now that our girls are older, Christmas has lost some of that magic, but being with the kids brought some of that back. Baby Michael was so cute,he just smiled and looked at everyone. It was nice to celebrate Christmas with Donna and Paul, although they missed spending it with their kids and grandkids, (you guys will have them next year). Mom and Dad were in their glory having us all around, however all the rest of their kids and grandkids who were not able to be there were missed. Christmas Day was spent with Tim's family in Utica. Judi, Dan, Kristin, and Jamie were there. Rosemary and Ed of course went overboard with the gifts(thank you), and the food was delicious as usual. We had a lot of laughs and the night ended way too soon. We hope that everyone who was not with us had a wonderful Christmas and know you were missed very much.

Our first real Christmas tree

After always having a fake Christmas tree, we decided it was time for a real one. So the day after Thanksgiving we got in the Explorer and headed to the tree farm. After researching trees on the internet, we decided a Douglas Fir was the tree we wanted. Unfortunately, the tree farm closest to us did not carry that type of tree, so we headed out to Chittenango where they had them. I thought there would be a store there, maybe some hot chocolate, but no, just a man standing there with a saw. He directed us to the top of big hill, which we had to walk up, and told us when we found the tree we wanted, saw it down, and drag it to the path where a tractor and wagon would pick us up. As we truged through the snow and mud, I knew we would have a hard time picking out a tree. There were so many! We are the family that can't even all agree what restaurant we want to eat at, let alone all agree on a tree. After the girls started chasing a mole that was running around, I knew it was time to pick a tree and go. I think the tree we found was perfect! I'm so glad we went for the real tree, can't wait to do it again next year.

Here are some pictures I took at Halloween. Angela and her friend Rachel dressed up as bumblebees. This was the first year that neither Tim or I took the girls out. We stayed home, and I handed out candy, much to Tim's relief, as he really doesn't like to do it. Amanda and her friends Mike, Kaitlyn, and Pat took the girls around the neighborhood. It's kind of strange that our days of walking around with the girls are over. I was glad that Angela wanted to go out trick or treating this year, who knows if she will want to next year. I'm also glad that Amanda wanted to take her out, she is a great big sister. It was a beautiful warm night, and they had a lot of fun. Even better, they got to sleep in the next morning. Wish Halloween was on a Friday every year!