Merry Christmas Everyone!!

I hope everyone is having a GREAT Christmas! I finally got most of my Christmas letters sent out yesterday. Yeah, I know.....but better late then never, right?

We had an AWESOME Christmas day! TJ woke up at 6:15 a.m. and ran in Tyra's room and woke her up. So, I ran upstairs to take pictures. Not long after that, our little guy woke up too. Finally, we drug daddy out of bed!! He kept teasing the kids by really delaying everything so it would take longer before they could open their presents. They just about couldn't stand it. Tommy kept saying, "Well, I think maybe we better go eat breakfast before we open presents. What do you kids think?" They were getting so mad. It was funny! Well, Santa was ACTUALLY able to get TJ the big Transformer "Bumblebee". We told TJ that we had looked everywhere for him. We even tried the Internet and couldn't find him anywhere, so if he REALLY wanted him, he had better ask Santa for him, because we weren't having any luck finding him. I said, "You know TJ, if ANYONE can find him, it would be SANTA!!"Tyra got her Heely's that she asked Santa for and our little one got his Spiderman Shoes. They got all kinds of other presents from each other and from us, too. Way too many, if I'd say so myself. Our dog Meeko got a lot of fun stuff too. I got a new cel phone, plus my digital camera and a new video camera (which I got to open early). Tommy got the new Playstation game, "Rock Band" and a chair! We all had so much fun playing that game. Tyra loved to try to do the singing part. TJ really liked playing the drums. I liked both the singing and drums and Tommy likes all of them, but especially the guitar. Our little guy just liked being around us while we played. He couldn't quite figure any of it out yet. But that's okay. He still had fun!

After opening all the presents my mom and dad came to visit. They were brave enough to travel on the slick roads and hour just to see us. That was so sweet! They brought everyone lots of gifts. Also, they brought little Hershey over so she could visit with Meeko. They both were sooooo excited to see each other. It was so cute! A while after they left and after playing with our presents for a few hours, we all got ready and went to Grandma Jeanne's house. She wasn't feeling to swell so we went over early to help her make Christmas dinner. Tyra was a HUGE help in the kitchen. She peeled potatoes, helped put together a relish tray with me, and a cheese and cracker plate with Grandpa. She also helped me make Pistachio pudding and a bunch of other things. TJ relaxed upstairs in front of the big screen TV watching cartoons. Our youngest son played with toys under every one's feet while we tried to work!! Gotta love 3 year olds!! The rest of the extended family all showed up between 5 and 6 p.m.













Dinner was wonderful! After dinner we sat around and talked for a while, then opened presents from Grandpa and Grandma, then some of us played "Pool" and some played "Turbo Yahtzee"! The party finally wound down between 9 and 10 p.m. The kids all fell asleep on the way home. Today was such a good day. Everyone really enjoyed themselves. Sometimes I am kind of a Scrooge at Christmas time but honestly, I can say this has been one of my best Christmas's ever!!