Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

I'm a little late at posting Christmas pics. but they're really not all that exciting. As I'm sure I've stated before, this was the first year that Dennis and I have not made it to North Dakota since we were married (a whole 5 years ago yesterday!). We greatly missed our families, but we did enjoy the peacefulness that comes with not traveling over the holidays. We ate Christmas Eve dinner before mass at 5:30 and opened presents as soon as we got home. We spent most of Christmas day in our pjs eating and playing and napping. It was splendid.
The kids got way too many presents which I guess is the American way. Eli got lots and lots of new games: Cariboo, Candyland Castle, Elefun, and Treasure Quest. He loves them all and wants to play them ALL THE TIME! Not that Dennis and I don't love games. It's just that Sadie is not quite ready for them so it ends up being a battle everytime. Sadie loves Elefun though. She just stands there, holding the net and laughing as the butterflies fly out of the elephants trunk, but she never catches any butterflies.
This was the year of the stuffed animal for Sadie. People must know how much I dislike stuffed animals. No, it's not that I don't like them, it's that I don't have the room for a gazillion stuffed animals. And now Sadie has about 50. Don't worry. We keep them caged in her crib and she sleeps on the floor.


Opening presents was a very serious job for Sadie. She really preferred playing in the paper and boxes.


Eli got the job of "gift opener" this year. He opened everyones presents and said, "Wow!", "That's nice." or "I like this." after opening every gift, even if it belonged to me or Dennis.

Santa Claus came and brougt Eli just what he asked for for Christmas-- a big boy bike. So, why isn't Eli sitting on the bike in this picture? Because, Eli will have nothing to do with the bike. He tells everyone he got a big boy bike and how much he likes it, but that's about as far as it goes.

Santa brought Sadie this way cool retro-kitchen. (Notice the stuffed animals falling out of the toy box in the background.)

"Don't send anymore stuffed animals. I have enough."