Merry Christmas!

Ice cream parlor set from Santa!

Patrick and Morgan at McNulty Family Christmas, best buddies :)

Sledding at Ellenberger Park...wheeee!

...and sledding some more...

Enjoying the White Christmas morning...

Very happy with his Sky Racers airplane!

Our typical Christmas Eve was a bust this year, being that the kids were still feverish and battling a viral infection. Instead of mass and celebrating with the Bretz side, we stayed home and made our own snacks, watched Christmas movies, and enjoyed the snow coming down. Some Bretz family stopped by with gifts and to wish us a Merry Christmas. All in all, being home was actually a very nice alternative. But prefer the tradition :)

Christmas morning the kids were up before 6...the second time. Patrick was at our bedside around 3 am to tell me that he "didn't hear anything". Santa was very good to them, bringing Patrick's desired Imaginext Sky Racers Carrier and Optimus Prime and Lucy's baby doll and multiple accessories as well as an ice cream parlor set. For the first time, we opened gifts fairly slowly and enjoyed the kids glee (especially Patrick, who announced that most of his gifts he "wanted his whole life") and surprise. Other favorites included a shared Lego set, Leapfrog Explorers, a RC monster truck, and many puzzles and other crafts. Lucy was mostly impressed with a small spiral bound Princess notebook and a LED flashlight that Santa left in her stocking. Who knew. Daddy and I made out good as well! My big gift was supposed to be a food processor (which made pizza dough quite nicely last night, I might add)...but there was a small box pulled out of the tree after all the other gifts were opened. Big, beautiful diamond earrings! To replace...and then some...the ones that Daddy gave me several years ago that I lost. Love that man. I felt a little silly giving him his hiking GPS, which I thought I was secretly splurging on. Oh well.

Celebrating continued later that evening with Christmas dinner at my parents house. The next morning we had a second Christmas morning with the McNulty side. Later that afternoon, we took the kids sledding over at Ellenberger, their first experience on a decent size hill which they really enjoyed. For about 30 mins :) Sunday family dinner was that night as usual at Mom and Dad's and we headed back home on Monday morning.

Fevers broke Christmas weekend, an end to the illness that we felt had been lurking since, well, Lucy's birthday, really. We enjoyed lazying around the house and watching the kids play with the new toys. Totally ready for spring now, unfortunately winter has just begun. We finally decided on a swingset and anticipate it's arrival after the first of the year. The last of our Christmas to the kids, something that we will enjoy this spring and many years to come.

Christmas Fun!

Yeah for some snow! The kids enjoyed the little bit of time we were able to spend outside late last week...but a little disappointed it wasn't perfect snowman-making snow. Friday night we enjoyed pizza at Turoni's on Main and then headed to Garvin Park for the Fantasy of Lights. This has become a tradition for us, something Brian and I look forward to doing with the kids right before Christmas. Saturday night we prepared our holiday cookie dough so we could decorate our Santa cookies tonight. Yummy!

Some of the less fun parts of the weekend include battling winter colds. Patrick is coughing up a lung, which has become expected from him every cold season. Luckily, we wised up after that first winter and are the proud owners of a nebulizer and take stock in Albuterol and Flovent as well as Mucinex...which has spared us trips to the pediatrician as well as more money out of pocket. Lucy rebounded from her stomach bug on her birthday just to find a cold involving the chills and fever at 103. Again, thank God for Motrin....which has allowed us to enjoy Christmas preparations isolated in our own home :) And, for myself, the joys of braces. I have found a new appreciation for oatmeal and soup....but am very much looking forward to the prettier smile over the course of the next 12-15 months.

Happy Birthday Lucy!

Yesterday we celebrated Lucy's 3rd birthday. Wow. Time flies. Three seems so much older than two, for some reason. We are back to that time of year when we can say we have kids a year apart, a four year old and a three year old. Sounds crazier :)

The day started off not so well with Lucy waking up sick in the night, but she had a very speedy recovery. We had tacos for dinner and I was able to pull off a rather bear-ish looking kitty cat cake. We got her a camera among other things, this was by far her favorite. She was showered by gifts from everyone else, including a beautiful homemade doll carrier with matching diaper bag and several outfits from none other than Grandma Bretz. Other fav's include a Barbie doll, a puppy in a carrier, and a whole set of baby doll accessories.

Happy Birthday, sweet girl. You have enriched our lives in so many many ways. Your red curls and impish smile can melt any heart. We love you so much!

Breakfast with St. Nick

Thanks to Grandma Bretz for making us our Christmas vests! We received many compliments!