Merry Christmas!

It has been an eventful two weeks here so I'll just dive right in!  My last day of school was December 20th which means I have 17 days off!!  Woo-hoo!  Not that I'm counting or anything.  Even better, dad's last day of work was December 21 and he is off until January 7.  Boy, has he earned it and I will reward him with some really intense daddy/daughter time!  Mom is working here and there but things aren't real busy this time of year so she is around more than usual which is OK, I guess.  She sure isn't Dat Dat though.

We finally got around to decorating our backyard.  It is kind of the thing to do here since we are packed in so tight in Highlands Ranch and everyone can see your backyard.  It's kind of a lot of pressure but it is nice and sparkly now so we are good to go.

In the midst of all the holiday craziness, we got to celebrate Dad's birthday.  Mom got him a sound bar for our new TV and it is pretty awesome.  Nana D and Mr. Walker made their appearance Saturday afternoon and we headed out to Parry's pizza for a birthday dinner.  I'm sure it was a fabulous birthday for dad!

Sunday was a lay around and relax kind of day.  Nana and Mr. took me to get my hair cut and then we tried for the park but Mr. Walker was being an old grandmama and cut it short because my hair was still wet and he thought it was to cold to be out with wet hair.  Pansy.   That night we watched Dad's other birthday present- National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.  This is our new holiday tradition and occasionally hits a little too close to home!

Monday was Christmas Eve and I was in full on Santa mode.  I spent a good part of the day drawing pictures of reindeer to leave out for Santa.  I also helped out with the never ending cookie baking and decorating.

In the afternoon, mom and I headed out to deliver some cookies to friends and neighbors, not because we are nice but because we have waaaaay to many cookies and needed to pawn some off on people.  Christmas cookies are the zucchini of December!

We then got all gussied up and headed out to Christmas Eve mass, where I spent most of the complaining about how boring it all is and the adults spent the time listening to an uplifting sermon about how "ill" we all are.  We all left church in a fabulous mood.  Good thing there was wine and beer waiting when we got home!

We got in a couple of classic family photos......

And then sat down to a yummy dinner of Vaquero Stew.  I honestly could not wait for that to be over because WE NEEDED TO GET TO BED!!!  I got Santa's cookie tray ready, reindeer food ready, left out his card and pictures and headed off to bed, dreaming of sugarplums (whatever those are).  Everyone else headed off to bed shortly there after for a restful night's sleep, except for mom.  She woke out of a sound sleep at 1:14 AM and realized that Santa had not been to our house yet.  So she tip-toed down the stairs, ate the cookies, drank the milk, hid the reindeer food and my pictures and headed back to bed with a tummy full of sweets.  It was a good thing she did wake up because a mere three hours and 50 minutes later, I was in mom and dad's room, quietly mentioning all the new presents under the tree.  I climbed into bed with them and actually settled down pretty good but I think dad was getting more anxious than me because he decided it was time to get up at 5:15.  Mom sent me in to wake up Nana and Mr. and we were off to the races!
I was surprisingly restrained and actually had Nana and Mr. open some presents before I dove into mine.  It was sooo worth the wait!

This is my cool Jordansaurus shirt from Uncle Adam and Aunt Erin

This is me opening my 10 tons of Skylander's stuff which also included a Skylander's carrying case from Uncle Tim and Aunt Dana.  That was mom's favorite gift because she isn't particularly crazy about having 50 Skylander figures willy-nilly around the house.  Containment is good!

Even though we only had a high of 19 degrees, we were all getting a little stir crazy so we bundled up and headed out for a hike to the sledding hill near our house.  It ended up being a beautiful day and we kind of worked up a sweat- so much so that I removed my hat, gloves AND coat at one point.
(As a side note, we did not get above freezing until Saturday when it was a high of 33 degrees)

Wednesday was back to the real world- mom had to work, Nana D and Mr. Walker headed back home but dad and I continued our vacation and headed out to Dallas to visit with Uncle Tim, Aunt Dana, Brooke and Faith.  I had a ball and was going non stop until we came home.  We hit the Natural History Museum, Dave and Buster's, the park,watched movies, played with the dog, and just generally created the havoc that only 3 girls can create- it was awesome!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, mom was holding down the fort.   She and Haile had some good bonding time, she got caught up on her chick flicks, finished off a bottle of wine, ate some Pho, ate some peanut butter chocolate cheesecake, did a lot of shopping and sleeping in late.  

In spite of the wild and crazy time she had, she was very happy to see us walk in the door on Sunday.  Tomorrow is New Year's Eve and we have actual plans- we are heading to my friend Cami's house for the evening and we are kind of excited about it!
We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and has a safe, healthy, happy New Year!