More December!

I don't often get pictures on Anthony sleeping, because he is not as heavy a sleep as Alex is... so i take advantage every chance i get... he is so sweet when he is sleeping...


Going outside to play! When Alex wore these snow pants... they were too big all winter... But Anthony will be lucky if he gets through the winter still wearing them!!! Its so funny how he is so much bigger than Alex was at the same age... And actually Anthony is younger than Alex was!


The HAT that Jerry bought in Uralsk... He will pass it on to Alex when he is big enough to care...

Ready to go... mis-matched and all!


Our Christmas presents this year... I always do coordinating papers and ribbons... this was this year's. My favorite so far!!! I have determined the first year we have Kimi... we will be doing PINK Christmas paper! See there is a little pink in this ribbon... if i have any left i will be using this ribbon... it is my favorite!!

______________________________________

So this year for the actual Christmas holiday, we went out to Nebraska to spend time with my Grandparents (maternal) and see my dad and any other relatives we could!! It just so happened that when we got half way through Iowa... we hit the major snow storm... a 9 hour trip took us 12... and that was in the last 4 hours of the trip! so it took us 7 hours to go 4 hours-worth!! There was soooo much snow on the roads and then in Nebraska it was blowing like crazy!!! we hit some huge drifts, because we couldn't see more than a few feet in front of the truck! We were soooo glad to get there!! However, we weren't able to see everybody we wanted to... my mom and brother were unable to make it, some aunts and uncles and cousins couldn't make it over either... There was sooooo much snow and it was COLD!!! It took Jerry and Grandpa 3 different snow shoveling sessions to get the driveway and sidewalk clear!! It was crazy!!!

So for Christmas dinner it was just us and grandma & grandpa! it was nice though, very low key and restful... Especially for Anthony, who fell asleep about 5 minutes into dinner... i got him settled and turned and was talking grandpa for maybe 3 minutes and when i turned back to check on Anthony he was OUT!!!! this kid has a thing for falling asleep during meals!!! It was so funny!!

After Anthony had a nice long nap, we opened some more presents that we brought from home from Aunt T and Uncle G.
and very "fun" clothes form mommy and daddy! hahaha! They were not impressed... well... a little, i guess.


After everyone went to bed at night Jerry and i would sit in the livingroom for a while and just be... it was quiet and nice just looking at the tree. Grandma's tree never seems to change... it was the same when i was a kid... kind of cool like that.

Oh! can't forget the crazy singing thing that Anthony pushed all day long! Jerry was about ready to throw it out into the snow... we had to start limiting it after a while!! hahaha! If grandma had her way, Anthony would have kept pushing it all day long! Grandma misses having little quirts running around her house! All of us grand-kids grew up while they lived in this house! So we all ran down the long hallway and played with the "old" toys and LOVED them!

Grandma told me an interesting story about this picture... She hired someone to paint this picture a long time ago... because they just loved it... and when it came to them... it was only about one foot by two feet long... so that painting is still under one of the guest beds and Grandma herself painted this one for grandpa! And it looks way better than the one they had painted for them!!

Some of the old toys that have been around for decades!

Grandpa's "paper-reading" spot.

The traditional in-front-of-the-Christmas-tree-before-we-leave-photo!! I must say they look awful cute!!!
Can you believe there is almost 80 years between them!!!! I can't!!! I hope we have MANY MANY more!!!