Christmas Celebrations...

We hope everyone enjoyed some memorable time with family and friends over the Holidays. It is certainly at this time of year when life seems so busy that is it a gift in of itself to spend some time our family. On Christmas Eve we celebrated Christmas with the Reason family. As per tradition we went to church which followed by a wonderful dinner of Chicken Divan and Angel Pie. For those of you who know my family's dogs, Clint and Cady, you will not be surprised to hear that Clint ate half of our Chicken Divan dinner earlier that day so the rest of the family had to have a bit smaller portion sizes for our Christmas Eve dinner. Since we were little kids we always received one present on Christmas Eve - pajamas, however this is the first year that the dogs were included. Pictured is Cady, with my sister Becca, showing off her Merry Christmas pajamas.

The list of stories we could tell about Clint are endless and for some reason we still can't keep up with him and learn our lesson. Here is he looking very cute after eating half of our Christmas Eve dinner.

Steve showing off his pajamas from the classic Christmas movie, A Christmas Story.

Comparing bumps...I'm at 24 weeks in this picture...how far along to do you think my dad is?

After spending Christmas morning with the Reason family and laughing while everyone tried their skills on the new Wii system we drove to Rochester to celebrate Christmas with the Smith family. On Christmas we were able to spend some time with Steve's aunt and uncle, Larry and Lori, and their two kids, Michelle and Matt. Steve's Grandma Nellie also joined us for Christmas this year. We were thankful that she got picked up earlier than planned because she got two feet of snow at her house over Christmas. Amongst the Smith family traditions on Christmas, we certainly are fortunate that the real memorable moments this year was the laughter from our niece Olivia. She adores Steve and Steve adores her! They are the best playmates together. Steve will certainly make a wonderful father!!! Olivia's favorite things to do with Steve are being pushed in a plastic bin, flying through the air in a blanket and of course her new love for feeding our dog Captain.

Captain sometimes isn't interested in food - he got his slow eating habits from his mom and dad. But when Olivia is around Captain is the best eater. We should have her over every morning - but maybe this will be taken over by our child someday :)

Steve's parents live on a beautiful acre lot outside of Rochester. Their entire back yard is a huge hill - it has been claimed as the neighborhood sledding hill. While Rochester only had about 6 inches of snow compared to the 12+ we got in Chanhassen, there was still plenty for us to enjoy some time sledding. I think Captain enjoyed it the best since he chased every single person down the hill.

It was Olivia's first time sledding. While she looks happy in this picture don't let it fool you. It was certainly nerve racking for her and she only made it on a couple of slow runs.

The true highlight though was watching Susan and Gary fly down the hill. Whenever Gary would walk back up the hill his comments would always be around the theme of, "I'm wounded." Susan on the other hand forgot that she needed to bail out of the sled before she ran into a wooded area at the bottom. Her best comment amongst laughter was, "I can't get up."

We certainly had a wonderful Christmas. We hope all of you did as well. Happy New Year!