We have had a WONDERFUL Christmas break! I am so thankful that we were able to spend time with family and find time to relax with the kids. When the kids got out of school the last day, I was most looking forward to spending time with them without having to worry about who had to be where next... and that is exactly what we did. One of our "projects" was making gingerbread ornaments... something I thought would be a quick & easy project... but wasn't. The recipe I used said it would be easy to cut into cookie shapes.... wrong. After putting the dough in the fridge overnight (much to Jacob's dismay)... and almost doubling the flour the recipe called for... we were FINALLY able to cut shapes. THEN... the recipe said it would take 20 minutes to bake... wrong again... it took over an hour. With 3 batches of cookies... the oven ran ALL day. Time to paint, thanks to help from Geri... time to coat w/clear coat (which almost knocked us out every time we went in the garage for several days b/c of the smell)... time to add ribbon thanks to help from Nana... finally done! So... if you received one of these ornaments, know that it was made with LOTS of love... and the kids really did enjoy having something to give that they had made... here is the final product from one batch (next year, the kids might just make cards??!!)
We also had lots of Christmas celebrations! We had a WONDERFUL dinner with Londa, Troy, & Hunter (our neighbors). We have been blessed with the BEST neighbors... when we moved from Wake Forest I thought we would never get that lucky again... thankfully, I was wrong...
The kids & I were also able to spend a couple of days with Geri at the beach. It was nice to get away and have time to relax... we did make it out to the beach for a few minutes... but it was COLD!
Making Santa cookies!
Papa & Memommy came to stay with us at Christmas... we went to the Candle Light Christmas Eve service at our church. I love, love, love this service... but was nervous this year because Jamie & Jacob were going to sit with us the entire time... on Sundays they get to go out after ~20 minutes to children's church... and it can be a challenge to get all 4 to sit still & quiet. Thankfully, they were perfect... Jacob sat beside Papa and all was well!
This year, we decided to let the kids open gifts from us and from each other on Christmas Eve (well... I'll just be honest and tell you that I promised this to the twins if they were on their BEST behavior at church, which they were!) I think this will become a tradition for us (not the bribery, just the opening of family gifts on Christmas Eve...) Then we checked Santa's whereabouts via Norad, and put out the reindeer food, Santa cookies, & eggnog (yes, we have discovered that Santa LOVES eggnog... more so than plain old milk...)
We have a "rule" in our house... don't get out of bed before the sunshine comes up if it isn't a school morning... but that obviously didn't apply on Christmas morning b/c as you can tell by the window... it was still VERY dark. The kids were delighted to find that Santa was good to us once again... thanks to Jingle's nightly reports to Santa of good behavior (our Elf on the Shelf).
Even Black Jack & Raymond were on Santa's list... they were invited in the house and had a few goodies in their stockings!
The weekend after Christmas, we finally made it to the light show at the zoo. This was our first time, and we loved it! Unfortunately, Jamie & Jacob had to stay home with a sitter... they would not have made Santa's good list on this day... Jamie promises that next year she will be good enough to go see the lights! 
The lights didn't impress the girls (or me) nearly as much as the baby koala!!!! Momma & baby were awake and eating... I guess that is an advantage of going to the zoo at night!
We headed "home" to Raleigh for New Years! We were able to see James' family and celebrate Christmas with them... and, as always, eat lots of goodies!
Then we headed to Nana & Papaw's to bring in the New Year and celebrate Christmas with Shelly, Jan, & Sydney! Jessica & Jaycie stayed awake until midnight to celebrate the arrival of 2010!!!!
Relaxing time... this is what I was so looking forward to most... time to enjoy each other... and that is what we did! I love this picture... it sums it up... when I came downstairs this morning... this is what I found on the couch...
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