Christmas Morning 2013

Where've I been for the last two weeks? Around, off of school, busy as a bee and not particularly feeling like a blog post. But that has passed, so here I am.

We left off on Christmas Eve. So Christmas morn came and we were ready to roll. Down the stairs we came...

to notice that Santa had, in fact, arrived. And what could that gigantic present on the right be???

But first stop was the food we left behind, which Santa and his assortment of sooted sidekicks took care of pretty well.

One problem though, good golly big jolly apparently couldn't stay away from the donuts. I'll let it slide this time, Santa, because, well, you done good. (did you notice, on the photo above by the oranges, he left the "no munching" sign that I put on the donuts? Kind of rubbing it in there, Santa, I'll be watching you this year.)

Got some good stuff, among them a stuffed cardinal that I REALLY wanted (long story, but did you know the cardinal is pretty much officially the Skertich bird?)...

And the movie Brave, which is flipping awesome!

Also scored this fancy vest.

And Mae? Well, she pretty much only needed her chap stick to be happy. He could've shut her off after that and I don't think she would've even noticed.

Pax did some opening as well from old St. Nick as well, and then it was on to our big present that was addressed to all of us.

Looks like there are gonna be some ballers in this house.

Lastly, this holiday season I'll leave you with our Christmas Card Wall of Fame. Thanks to all of you who sent one our way, we just LOVE Christmas cards.

A quick look back at Christmas

Well, since we were all sick as can be right after Christmas, I never got around to posting Christmas pics.

So here goes nothing.

First off, here is our tree. Worst. Tree. Ever. Since we were already at Costco we went all mainstream and got our tree from there.

Long story short - 3.5 hours later, after dad had dragged this tree out to the alley and we went up to our local garden to get our tree, we were back in business. And at school I made the angel to put on top... bonus.

Okay, fast-forward to Christmas Eve at Nana's. I got this awesome computer...

And Mae got one too. Thing was, after Mae opened up her computer she spent the next 25 minutes on it. See the presents behind her? Not interested, just rocked the computer. NERD ALERT! She did end up getting on this horse a little while later.

Got some awesome pics Mae and then some more with the cousins.

I've been telling you for years Eli is just a straight baller.

We left apples and a cookie for Santa and carrots for the reindeer, which were a big hit. Then Mae and I came down together and opened gifts.

Um, yeah, chapstick was a huge score, been asking for that since before Thanksgiving. Ah, the simple things.

We got mom this pancake shaper that does Sesame St. characters.

Mom, however, probably didn't need it. Did I ever tell you she is a professional. Requests Christmas morning were flying out the window - WREATH! PRESENT! SNOWFLAKE!

PRESENT! SNOWFLAKE! CHRISTMAS TREE!

SANTA HAT! ANOTHER SNOWFLAKE! CANDY CANE!

See what I mean.

And now back to our regularly scheduled nerd alert.

Spent the next three weeks puking, coughing, sneezing, ear infecting, the whole bit. But we're better now and getting set for BIRTHDAY WEEK!!!