It was a great Christmas this year! Unfortunately, we didn't make it out to Colorado, to be with Grandma, Grandpa, Brian, and Brittney. In spite of that, it was our first Christmas with just our little crew, and it was a lot of fun. Matt and I got Alex some outrageous candy-cane stripe PJs and Genne was very cute in her 'My First Christmas' outfit. You could tell Alex thought he looked pretty attractive with the way he was strutting around the house! If only we could have gotten him to leave his hat on... it was very cute. There were home-made stockings on the door and plenty of presents under the tree. Alex left Santa a plate of cookies with a glass full of Lactose-free milk. The carrots were for the reindeer. Alex must have been a fantastic boy this last year because he got the most presents of all. He was also the gift inspector for the rest of the family. After he had finished unwrapping all of his own gifts, he went around and played with everyone else's gifts for a while. Santa was merciful and gave Alex a magnetic drawing kit so he would no longer wreak havoc upon any blank portion of wall. Genne was as cute as ever, she smiled a lot and gratefully chewed on her new toys. Matt spent the majority of the day slack-jawed and drooling in front of his video games, computer, or Blackberry. He didn't want me to reveal his geekiness to the rest of the world.. he calls himself a 'closet geek?' Yeah... riiiiight, nobody ELSE knows you're a geek Matt... :) I was having fun with my HD Zune and long-awaited Cricut (I still can't believe Matt bought himself all of his own presents this year.. it definitely will not happen next year). Also, I started cooking at 2pm and didn't finish until 6pm. Ugh! All that time in the kitchen! How can people stand it?! I had been wanting to have some Haitian holiday food and made a roast turkey, haitian macaroni, rice, and sweet potatoes. It all turned out great... except the turkey. Don't get me wrong... it tasted good... it just didn't LOOK good. I accidentally pulled off the legs while trying to transport it into a prettier dish. Matt swears that it was the best turkey he's ever had, not just because of the taste, but because of the good laugh he had when I pulled the legs off. Speaking of Matt, he wanted me to note that we kept as many Vinton traditions alive as was possible. Of particular note, we got everyone an ornament this year, and ate pie for breakfast. I love my little family. It was wonderful to have this week to spend together without any interruptions.















We hope that you all had a great Christmas because we sure did.