Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

What a Christmas this was! We had so much family in town (23 people for Christmas dinner) -want the list? Patrick, Kim, Anna, McKenna, Ava, Grandma Franz, Aunt Jenny, Uncle Brian, Sitto (great-grandma), Jiddo (great-grandpa), Grandma and Grandpa Clerkin, Uncle Rich, Aunt Rhona, Maggie and Tommy (cousins), Uncle Mike, Nicole, Great-Uncle Rich, Great-Aunt Jackie, Paul and Nicole (Jackies' kids) and Jeren (Nicoles' finance)! We had a wonderful time with everyone and it was a great holiday. Anna and McKenna thought it was great because they got to stay up late every night and Ava did REALLY well staying up WAY past her bedtime all of those nights as well.

With everyone in town, we did a lot of juggling between houses - Christmas Eve and Grandma and Grandpa Clerkin's, Christmas morning at our house with Grandma Franz, Aunt Jenny and Uncle Brian, later Christmas morning at G&G Clerkin's, short break to get food ready, and then Christmas dinner with everyone at G&G Clerkin's. Everyone was very generous this year, so to find a place to put all of the new toys, we are selling our pool table (seriously, it should be listed on Craig's List tomorrow!). We have been debating for several months (really closer to 5 years) and we decided that the upstairs belongs to the girls, and they might as well have the entire thing.

We all also went to se ICE! at the Gaylord. Anna and McKenna only wanted the ice slide, but they thought the whole thing was pretty cool. Ava was great until we got to the ice slide and then she decided it was just too cold, so Grandma Franz took her to get warmed up.

I had so much fun taking almost 2 weeks off of work and getting to spend so much time with the girls and family. Anna has already told Aunt Rhonda to expect us in North Carolina in July - she was so upset the night before Maggie and Tommy had to leave :( Here are some fun shots of the holidays. All of the decorations are down, school and work have started back up, and the girls are already trying to figure out how to stay on the nice list for next year, but with faces like these, how could they not be on the nice list?!

Another year has flown by and I am amazed each day by all of the blessings we have, specifically our 3 beautiful daughters as well as all of the rest of our family, we love you all.