Holiday Wrap-Up

I am back after a short hiatus! My post today is a bunch of random, unrelated junk that has been happening over the holidays. I love Christmas, love decorating, but I suffer from post-holiday funk every year, so when it's over, IT'S OVER! So in the spirit of that sentiment, here's a recap of the holiday this year which will serve to purge my mind of it along with my desktop which is littered with images from the camera!

As I said before, we were unable to go back home to MN for the holidays this year (which is a good thing, since we would have had to cancel due to the weather anyways!), so we stayed here in VA and explored around our area. One night we went to the Botanical Gardens to see the "Garden of Lights", which the kids enjoyed immensely! The day before Christmas Eve we headed up to Yorktown and Colonial Williamsburg (wow, our state is OLD) and checked out the battlefields and holiday decorating. Williamsburg is always quaint and beautiful, but even more so on the holidays. Here are some photos of that day:

Williamsburg, VA

Yorktown, VA

Mmmm, Hot Chocolate!

Kids checking out the replica Revolutionary Ship

Yorktown, VA

Williamsburg, VA

Kids in Williamsburg

Hubby remarking on how much nicer the American Revolution guys' bunks are than his on the carrier!

Finnegan

Kids "gettin schooled"

On Christmas Eve we went to dinner at a friend's house (a native New Yorker), and enjoyed their Italian Pasta tradition and the kids enjoyed playing with their friends. We thought we got back home early enough to call MN and say hi to everyone at my parents' house, but some had to leave early due to their winter storm and the road conditions. Christmas Eve was always a bigger deal for me (read: party!) than Christmas Day growing up, so we decided to let the kids open all the gifts from anyone but us & Santa that night. We are really trying to teach the kids that the holidays are about more than presents, which is why they only got 1 gift each from Santa this year, and we used some of the money they received as gifts to visit the Yorktown battlefields and light displays as a family instead of toys that will be broken by the end of the week! Hopefully they learned something and will have family memories from that day.

On the way home from Christmas Eve Dinner... who eats an orange like this?!

Christmas Day started with the kids opening their gifts from Santa, and count it.... ONE gift from us! We did it! They actually shared one gift and LOVE IT! That's because, wait for it... they got the coveted BB Gun! Here they are happy and learning to shoot (after our safety lecture, of course!) They are lucky mama knows how to handle a weapon and loves to shoot, so they won't need daddy for that when he leaves on deployment. I was the one who had to be talked down out of the pink .22 rifle and settle for the BB Gun, :)! Someday! Me? I got a new pair of rubber boots, gloves, and a stirrup hoe for Christmas, bought by me I might add! But the best gift was the new camera I received from my parents' charitable donation to my blogging efforts. Now the blogging can resume!

A very happy child!

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out!!!

Marley & Sprocket

Marley

It's not Christmas until someone dons a Viking Helmet... here's my friend's Great Dane "Baby Bubbles"... can you tell her kids named the dog?!

A little chaos at my friend's house! Does watching dogs chase remote control cars ever get old?

"You'll shoot your eye out!"

There, it's done! Even the decorations, tree, house & yard lights are back in the attic. Now I can concentrate on something I have been looking forward to and waiting until after the holidays were over.... planning my Spring Garden! Here's to the garden blog getting back to being garden-related! Hope all of you have fun surfing your seed catalogs, that's where I am headed!