And the Holidays FLEW by!

I had these great ideas for different blogs about the holidays, but I'm behind and currently procrastinating from grading so I think we will combine it into one!

Break was off to a great and busy start with my 36th BIRTHDAY! How did I get to be 36 and why did it seems SO MUCH older than 35? I had all sorts of celebrations starting with Monday Night Football Trivia at Billy's with the gang from the neighborhood. The celebration continued with lunch on Tuesday with my mom, aunt, and sister and Bryan took me to dinner at LoHi Steak Bar. I got 2 desserts on my birthday, Creme Brule and a Banana Split! And on Wednesday we went to dinner with Kari and Corey. Great birthday celebrations!

Next we decided to make Pierogies for Christmas dinner! I forgot how much work this was from when I used to help my Grandma but they were delicious! Jordyn and Skylar were troopers who helped Grandma, Aunt Lori and I all day! We ended with cheese, sauerkraut, and prune pierogies and enjoyed them on Christmas and beyond!

Christmas Eve was a great time! This was Tony and Erin's year to spend Christmas Day with Erin's parents so our big celebration was on Christmas Eve. All 13 of us went to Three Sons for a great Italian dinner, it was cozy quarters but we made it work! After dinner we headed to Aunt Lori's for presents and dessert. The girls enjoy spending time together and they were lots of fun to watch exchange presents! Lauren is at a GREAT age for presents and I think would appreciate them if they were just boxes and bubble wrap!

Christmas morning continued the holiday festivites! Bryan and I spent our first Christmas with just the two of us and our last! We had a relaxing morning playing Bryan's new WII games and opening our stockings! We opened our other gifts to each other the night before and it was hard enough to get Bryan to wait that long! We had a great time and were both very spoiled. On Christmas we headed to my parents around noon for some more present opening. I can't believe how spolied Zander already is! He had lots of presents and he isn't even here yet! We had a great time playing new games and enjoying the Pierogies we worked so hard on. As always, there was plenty of food and plenty of leftovers!

I would say the true "vacation" started the week after Christmas, Bryan would say he is still waiting for it. With both of us being off, we got lots done. We worked on the nursery, napped, washed MANY loads of baby clothes, napped, cleaned 1/2 of the basement, napped, ran errands, napped, and prepared for our annual New Year's Day Party!

Our doctor appointment this week was another ultra sound and everything looks great! Zander is measuring big and I of course blame Bryan (he was over 10 and 1/2 pounds!) but it looks like we will be induced around the 12th of February. We should find out for sure at our next doctor appoinment this Friday. We also attended our childbirth class and went on a tour of the hospital.

New Year's Eve was pretty laid back. We started at some friends, the Lofton's for a pizza dinner with friends and ended closer to home at Courtney and Mike's. There was lots of talk about how different next year would be with a 10 month old!

On New Year's Day we were up early, preparing for the festivities! Both TV's were ready to go, the dice were warmed up, the keg on the front porch, crock pots held way to much food, and car bombs in the fridge! Too bad the Spartans forgot to show up for the Capital One Bowl! We always look forward to hanging out with family and friends and enjoying all the great food everyone brings! There were a lot more kids this year (and even more to come next year!) and Zander's toys were even tried out, I think they passed inspection. A great day with a house full of friends, family, football and awesome food! Overall, everyone came a little earlier and the night wrapped up a little earlier than in the past...I was blamed for the number of Car Bombs I poured but I think we are just getting older!

I hope everyone had a great holiday and I wish everyone A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!