Santa stopped by our house...

Santa stopped by our house and filled our stockings with lots of goodies.... lots of white chocolate for me and lots of milk chocolate for Troy. YUM!! He also left a movie and a little hippo for Troy and some hand towels for me. It was a perfect Christmas! :) Askie got a snowflake covered bone... he destroyed it in no time flat. What a great Christmas treat for him!

Hickman Family Christmas

It was so fun for us to have Askie with us on Christmas... he doesn't much care about Christmas, but we enjoyed getting him some special Christmas treats! :)

Sweet little Sophia was all decked out in her Christmas finery... she looked adorable and there were many arguments over who got to hold her. Haha! I am sure I held her more than my fair share, but she is just so cuddly, I couldn't help myself.
This is the very cute sign we got from the Hickman's.... it will look fabulous in our home. :)Troy giving Sophia some eskimo kisses. :)
Sophia's cute Christmas outfit... "all mommy wants for Christmas is a silent night" So cute!
Avery holding Sophia, with a little help from Darren
Madison
Sherri and I decided to play dress up with the new dress Avery got for her doll, and see if it fit Sophia... Viola! It does! And with a little room to spare, since as you can see if even fit over the clothes she already had on. Haha!
Avery in her pretty new dress from Grandma, sharing her doll's dress with Sophia.
Sophia and Colleen
I didn't do a very good job of getting photos of everyone, but it was wonderful to spend Christmas with Troy's family... we missed the Burgoyne's though, and hope we get to see them soon!!

Christmas morning at the Ottley's

Merry Christmas!!! Who ever heard of having to wake up a child on Christmas morning?? Well, we all arrived early at the Ottley house for breakfast and to see what Santa brought... Avery was sound asleep. Haha! She woke up soon enough and we dug into the presents and enjoyed lots of laughing and playing. The a delicious breakfast was served, complete with doughnuts specifically for the "anti-egg boy." Haha! Troy was grateful to have the doughnuts! Thank you to the Ottley's for including Troy and I in Christmas morning! We loved it!
Darren got a new gun.... check out those crazy eyes!! I am a little nervous... Hahaha!! Speaking of guns... did you know guns are illegal in Japan? Apparently they are.... as we quickly found out when Darren opened this present. Kiko, Darren's brother David's Fiancee, was VERY nervous when Darren opened his new gun, and hid behind David in a bit of a panic. It was the first time she had ever seen a gun and she didn't quite understand why someone would give Darren such a present.
Madison got a new guitar... Troy is excited to give her lessons. :)
Avery got a new doll... It was so fun to have some of Darren's family there to celebrate with us! This is Darren's sister Ashley (and the shoulder belongs to his Mother, Elaine)Darren's Brother David and his Fiancee, Kiko (sp????) were visiting from Japan. Kiko is from Japan, and David has lived in Japan for a year and a half or so.

Christmas Eve...

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve with Troy's family.... tons of food, Christmas Carolers, treats, sweet baby Sophia's first Christmas Eve, reading the Christmas story, reading the families' "Christmas Predictions" letter from 5 years ago.... we took very few photos, but had a wonderful time! We even had some extra family members to celebrate with... Darren's mom, one of his brothers (and his Fiancee) and one of his sisters. It was great to get to know them! After all the family festivities, Troy and I came home to have a quiet evening of silly Christmas movies while we waited for Santa to come. :)


I stole a few photos from Sherri.... here are a few more of our Christmas Eve....

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! It's Christmas Eve and it's really starting to look like Christmas around here.... presents wrapped under the tree (well, next to the tree), decorations are up, Christmas music playing.... and most importantly my wonderful husband here with me! :)
We don't have a fireplace, so it's always a question of what to do with the stockings.... I usually opt for the banister on the stairs, but this year I decided to get a little more creative...Tonight we are off to dinner with Troy family, and are looking forward to seeing everyone! Merry Christmas!!Askie doesn't seem to care much that it's Christmas Eve...

Hanging with the Streiffs...

Last night Troy and went to join many of the Streiff cousins in some Christmas fun! It was so wonderful to see all of them!! We got together at Charlotte and Craig's house in Farmington... they have a beautiful home and it was so sweet of them to have everyone over!

There was a white elephant gift exchange, of course! And here is the treasure that Troy and I came home with.... we love it and thought it was hilarious! Don't be surprised if you see it hung up in our house... haha!
The night was not complete without a VERY EMBARRASSING story of course.... We had never been to Charlotte's house so we put the address into the navigation system and headed out. We arrived on the street and went to the house with all the cars in front of it.... some kids opened the door. I didn't recognize them, but it's been a really long time since I saw Lisa, Chelane or Charlotte's kids so I didn't really think anything of it. There was a pile of shoes by the door, so we were taking off our shoes when a lady I didn't recognized walked into the room and said hello. I look at her, said hello, thought for a moment.... and very quickly realized that I had no idea who this very nice and polite lady was... I said, "We are in the wrong house!" She laughed and asked who we were looking for. She told us Charlotte and Craig lived across the street... but very sweetly invited us to stay for her daughter's birthday. Haha! We declined and laughed as we put our shoes on and walked across the street to the proper house. I am sure Charlotte will greatly enjoy the stories of her crazy cousin walking into the neighbor's house! Hahaha!!

We also had the privilege of meeting Natalie's new baby, Elizabeth.... she is such a little cutie!! Troy and I had a great time playing with her all night!

Frost covered morning...

wow it was cold this morning... at least the very thick fog made for some very pretty frost on everything... haha!

Silly Puppy....

Askie is getting old.... he has never liked stairs, even when he was a puppy, but now he seems to just be terrified of them. I think it hurts his joints to go up and down them. So the past couple nights he just sits at the bottom of the stairs whining and whimpering until one of us comes down stairs (usually Troy... thanks love!!). AND YET.... when we leave him home alone in the middle of the day, he somehow manages to go up the stairs just fine to have a nap on his blanket at the foot of the bed..... what a little punk! Haha! Of course it then takes me 20 minutes and lots of coaxing to get him back down the stairs... I wish he wasn't getting so old. :(

snowy afternoon at the zoo...

Yesterday we decided to have a little fun.... no studying for the GMAT, no looking for job, no stress.... just an hour or maybe two of fun.... the only challenge... we have very little money these days, so off we went to the zoo. :) It was FREEZING!! But we had a wonderful time none-the-less. :) All the babies are growing very quickly... the tigers are huge! And Himal, the snow leopard, is almost as big as his Mom, Nima. It was a very fun day! After the zoo, we went for a drive to check out all the Christmas lights.... it was just a fabulous fun afternoon/evening. :)

The Bell Tree...

It's my Mother's fault... but I have developed a love for theme Christmas Trees..... this year we brought out a few of our bell ornaments. They are just so fun! The small tree doesn't hold too many, but luckily we had some small ones that work great! We have everything from fish, to elves, to santa clause, to frogs, to seagulls, to penguins.... all made of bells!