Happy Holidays!

Maddie on her way to the last day of school before Christmas break. Her black shirt had a sparkly ornamented Christmas tree on the front so she looked very festive.

Now it has taken me so long to finish this post that I have to say - Wow! I can't believe Christmas is over already.

Traditional top of the stairs Christmas morning photo. I wonder how many more of these will have two girls in them...?

If Loretta hadn't helped me wrap all my presents and get my house organized, I would never have been ready for Christmas in time. It all seemed to go by in a blur...

It was kind of a crazy two weeks here - Amy was home from college, my nephew, Lauron, and niece, Angel, were here, visiting Grandma D. and us, and Grandma Sargeant came back with Amy to finish her move to Utah. We had Grandma D.'s Christmas party on Saturday, church on Sunday, some of the family for dinner after church, Christmas Eve Family Home Evening on Monday and dinner for more family.
Amy and Tyler at Grandma D.'s Christmas dinner party. It was a lot of fun this year, as Uncle Dave, Aunt Karen, Elisabeth, Jared, and Jacob were there, as well as Lauron and Angel. Grandma always knocks herself out for this event and it is eagerly anticipated. I don't think that she will ever be able to top this year's family gift, however. We will all NEVER forget the "ghost grandma" ornaments!!

Then we had Christmas day with everyone over at various times and spent Wednesday with Lauron and Angel - shopping, movie, "In 'N' Out" for dinner, and Guitar Hero fest till the wee hours (I'll be glad when that thing is GONE back to college!)
Although as you can see, lots of people had fun pretending to be "rock stars."

"Look, Daddy! I can play too!"

Angel liked the game so much she pooled all her money and bought one after she went home.
Looking at Lauron, you might think he was a real punk - especially if you remember his "Especially for Youth" cute little white-blond flat-top look. The funny thing is, he's still the same sweet huggy "I love you, Aunt Linda" boy he's always been. Is he just a "wanna-be punk??"

The Christmas Day soccer game players after little Ally kicked the winning goal. The rest of us were walking the track with the stroller babies, but it got too cold and they had to head home. Susan came back and picked up stragglers in two loads in her car. It was a little crowded - kind of like the car full of clowns at the circus...

It was a great vacation. I'm not ready to go back to "real life" yet...