Oops! Did I forget to blog? - Part 2

Merry Christmas Eve!!!! So to continue my blogging, we went over to Jeremy's parents' house on Christmas Eve and a bunch of the family decided to do the Kool-Aid challenge (see the prior blog for more of an explanation). Here's the after shot As is tradition, Santa Claus came to the Biehn home that evening and all of the kids got to sit on his lap. Tessa was super excited to see him and kept yelling "Hi Santa" while Natalie started crying hysterically and didn't want to leave my lap. Until Santa started handing out candy canes. Tessa got hers and then we convinced Natalie to go get one but she still wouldn't sit on his lap. Then Santa started passing out the presents and all of a sudden, Nattie couldn't wait to sit on Santa's lap. Here are the two girls happily sitting with Santa (ok, happy may be a stretch, but hey, they're not crying). Yay!

Here are the girls with all of their cousins in the new pajamas that Sant brought for them. My girls jammies say "Santa's Little Helper" and they looked super cute in them.

Another Christmas Eve tradition at the Biehn home is the exchanging of White Elephant gifts. I chose to give the gift of all my foot shavings from my Ped Egg for the past year. Aunt Janet was the lucky winner of that gift. Jeremy found a picture of Barack Obama (I refuse to call him President) and Michelle Obama and he superimposed his dad's head in place of Senor Obama's. It looked great and everyone thought it was hilarious (except maybe his dad).

As is becoming tradition, Jeremy and Coni made a "gingerbread" house and all the kids ate it. Actually, this year, instead of gingerbread, he made his house out of rice krispie treats. Much more yummy and not as tempermental.

Merry Christmas Morning!

The girls were excited to open their presents but when I tried to get a picture of them in front of the tree, this is what I got. Oh goodness, Nattie.

Grandpa Hargis came over for breakfast and to exchange gifts on Christmas morning and these are the giant stuffed hippos that he gave the girls (they love that I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas song).

We ventured over to the Biehn home in the late morning and here's our little family before the chaos began.

When we were done there we went back home and we all took naps. Then we woke up and exchanged gifts between just the four of us. The girls had lost interest in opening gifts at this point (a sure sign that they got too many gifts) and were more interested in eating as many M&Ms as they possibly could. Oh well, 'tis the season.

We had such a wonderful Christmas and the best part was watching the girls get excited when they opened their gifts. This was the first year that they were really into it. In fact, we were so content watching them that we forgot to take pictures of them actually opening their gifts. Grrrr. Argh! Oh well.

Well, as this is my last post of the year (only 16 minutes until midnight at this point), I feel I should reflect on this past year.

I have felt completely blessed this year. I kept my job when many others lost theirs. I have a roof over my head, food on my table everyday, and a family who I love more than anything else. My children bring me joy everyday (along with a bit of aggravation). I love my husband and, while having him in school makes it so that I don't see him as much as I'd like, I'm grateful that he wants to work so hard to make things better for our family in the longrun. I'm grateful to have a mother and father-in-law who are willing to watch the girls twice a week (sometimes more) in order to make our lives a little less stressful. They are truly a huge blessing in our lives. I'm grateful for my Mom who helps me with all my little projects that I come up with everytime she comes out to visit (by the way, Leif's blanket is a hit). I'm grateful for my dad who makes sure to come visit the girls and play with them almost every week and who usually buys us dinner too :) I'm grateful for my siblings-in-law who have become such a huge part of my life and who make me love having a big family. I'm grateful for my Kansas siblings for loving my kids so much and who I am finally able to relate to a little more (big age differences as kids are not so fun sometimes).

I hope that next year will see a few more New Year's resolutions realized and I hope that it finds all of my family and friends healthy and a little less stressed.

From Jeremy and I, we love you and look forward to all that next year will bring.

-Jocelyn-