Christmas 2010

The Season started out with Jim's work party. The dress for this event was semi formal. I debated and shopped and shopped and to find something to wear. I got this blouse and wore it with a skirt I already had. I insisted that Jim wear his tie with Santa at the computer. He got many compliments on the tie. After we got to the event, (the scarf wasn't staying in place 2 silky fabrics next to each other and my hair was bugging me) I switched things around. Plus now you can see my cute purse that I got.
The food was delicious. Wine was included with dinner, this was something new for us. Of course we declined and stuck to our water. Afterwards we played minute to win it. Then a DJ was provided for the rest of the evening. We had so much fun.

Our fire department has a pot luck Christmas party each year. The Ladies Auxiliary get the names and ages of all the kids that will be attending and then purchases a small gift from Santa for each child. Our boys were very excited to see Santa and even willing to sit on his lap.
The next event was my mother's Christmas Eve party. She has moved the party time upto a late afternoon, which gives us time to travel back to our house and have Christmas morning at our house with our own little family. No pictures from the event, but we enjoyed plenty of good food, visiting with close family friends and the white elephant exchange. As we returned home we are greeted by the paper bag luminaries inviting all the locals to Christmas Eve Service.

A tradition that we have started is everyone gets new pajamas for Christmas Eve. However our boys were wore out from the festivities earlier in the day and fell asleep in the car on the ride home. Buzz light year for Parker, Lightening McQueen for Preston, something pink for Mom and something plaid for Dad.

We had an enjoyable day to our selves. I made a nice meal, the boys played with their new toys.
Someone should tell the cats to look at the camera and say cat nip.

After Christmas, I had volunteered to dog sit Emily the poodle for a friend. We were very excited to have her visit for a week while her owners were out of town. It took her a few days to for us to get used to her and her used to us. We enjoyed having her. She loved me. She followed me everywhere I went.

A new tradition we have started is taking the boys to see the lights at Lakefront Park. They take the amusement park and let local businesses decorate a spot with lights. It is kind of commercialized (everyone has their name in there somewhere), but the boys really enjoy it. This year we included Aunt Rebecca, Grandma, Aunt Courtney and the cousins to come with us. We met for dinner at Applebees, followed by a train ride at the mall, then the lights and train museum. We had a fun time and hope to be able to do it again next year.

During Christmas break we took the boys bowling. They had so much fun and have been asking since to go again. The place we went to was really child friendly. They had a ramp that kids could use to launch the ball and plenty of light weight balls for the younger crowd. The only downside, it seemed to take forever to bowl 1 game. We wanted the bumpers, but they were busy that night and not available.
We ended up the month with a trip to State College First Night program. This is a family friendly event put on to offer a New Year's Eve celebration without drinking. It is really talked up. We went to return Emily and see the ice sculptures. While I enjoyed it, I thought it would be more. Maybe if I would have paid the money for a button to see the paid events I would have been more impressed.