post-holiday post (warning: another long one!)

let's see if i can recap our holidays...it already seems so long ago! hanukkah was fairly uneventful this year, although we did make it out of the snow and over to adam and sarah's for a latke feast one evening. we didn't bring our camera, though...so no photos. sadly, i'm not even sure that we managed to light the candles every night! we did light them with my family on christmas eve, though and b had the honors!

the snow caused my family christmas eve celebration to be postponed until this saturday, so instead my sisters and their families came over to our house and we celebrated with a big lasagna meal and present opening for the kidlets. it actually turned out quite nice, but did make me a little sad that we had decided not to decorate for the holidays...so it wasn't very festive!

family pic:
group shot:
checking out his gifts:


christmas day, aaron's parents came over and watched kellen while we went to check out a movie. we had planned to go with adam and sarah to the curious case of benjamin button, but we had no idea that the theatre would be so crowded! we got to see benjamin button and adam and sarah had to go see another movie. after the movie, we had dinner with aaron's family and it was a bit of an adventure to get there and back...with several cars having to be pushed out of the snow, but we all made it there and back and it was nice to be with family, enjoying a good meal.

cuddling w/ grandpa (and teddy, of course!):
with muzz and chief:

k, checking out the tree and wanting to grab every ornament...maybe it was a good thing we didn't have a tree!
the boys pushing the first car out of the ditch:
k, watching the boys push the car out of the ditch:


we enjoyed a great duck football win in the holiday bowl (42-31 over Oklahoma State)...so nice to end the season on a winning note and so happy to see college football coming to an end here VERY soon! k and aa did some major celebrating with each duck touchdown which was even more entertaining for me than the actual game!

new years was quite mellow...just our little family home for the night. we put kellen down a little early and enjoyed a nice meal and for me a couple of glasses of champagne! coconut shrimp to start, mango and hearts of palm salad and seared scallops, roasted brussel sprouts and garlic bread for our meal. we ended with a little peanut butter pie and barely managed to stay up until the clock struck 12...but we did and we were tucked into our bed by 12:08! 2008 was quite a year and i'm definitely looking forward to 2009 and all it brings! i have a few ideas of things i'd like to accomplish in the new year and one of them includes figuring out our family holiday traditions for this new year...i'll share more of what i want to do in the next post.