Christmas

I am so so so behind in my blogging! We have been busy having fun with friends and family and of course lots of new toys from Santa. Then after the gift extravaganza, we have been shopping our brains out! I have never in my life seen Bill shop with so much gusto. He usually acts like he is allergic to the mall, and has about a 2h time limit, but he loves a deal and deals there were this year. So shopping at Costco or an outlet mall is something he can tolerate. We went to the outlet mall on the day after Christmas and he literally bought a years worth of work clothes at fantastic prices. I am getting a little ahead of myself.

Back to Christmas. This year was fantastic, the best ever since Lana totally GOT it! She was so excited the night she asked, "Mama, is Santa coming tonight?" and I said, "YES HE IS!!!" We left Santa a plate of cookies (thank you auntie Rumi for the awesome recipe) and a carrot for the reindeer, along with a note that Lana dictated :"Dear Santa, I am a good girl. Merry Christmas. Thank you." Christmas morning she asked, "Mama, is it Christmas?" "Yes, baby, it is!" We woke up Baba and Grandma Dianne . They rushed downstairs to turn on the lights on the tree and got their cameras ready. Lana came downstairs to her new dollhouse (which is pretty awesome, I might add) and looked SO confused. She was thrilled that the furniture in the dollhouse moved around b/c in toystores they generally have the furniture glued down so it doesn't disappear. We opened gifts for an eternity and finally decided to save some books and coloring books for a rainy day--she was totally overwhelmed with so many new things. Its not that we even bought her too much . But every family member and close friend sent her a few things which added up and then it just got to be out of control. Anyway, she was so excited and loved that Santa left her an orange in her stocking and despite the candy cane consumption, she took a monster nap after all that excitement.

Later Bill's parents came over for dinner. I made a fantastic turkey recipe with pancetta and I don't even like turkey all that much. It was a perfect day. So perfect that it even snowed--big fat Christmas snowflakes. I will leave my thoughts about the snow for another post, once I get my photos unloaded, but suffice it to say that we got a lot of snow--too much really and I am glad its gone. But it was festive, if nothing else.

So that was Christmas in a nutshell. Here is Lana's photo for our Christmas card. I am hoping to catch up with blogging once things get back to normal. I send my best wishes to you all for a Happy New Year and I hope that 2009 is filled with happiness, peace and love, from our house to yours!