Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

It has been a while since our last post so I will try to fill everyone in on our adventures this Christmas. We headed to Nana and Papa's after church on the 23rd. We had our family Christmas with Nana, Papa and Aunt Jen that night. It was so much fun! Luke had a blast handing out Christmas gifts. He got to be the first to open his gifts. It was so funny - I would tell him to pick a gift and he wouldn't grab the one closest to him. He would glance over his stack and choose a gift. His favorite gifts from that night was the Finding Nemo DVD that he asked Nana and Papa for and the Elmo Garage that Aunt Jen got him. He also really loves his new trike that he calls his "bike".
The plan for the next day was to leave for Granny's house by 8:30. I think we made it out the door by 9:00. Not too bad. The only problem was I woke up with matted, gunky eyes. You see I always get these extremely bright ideas on how we can save money. I decided that since it is winter time I didn't need to take my allergy medicine everyday. So I missed about three days of medicine. This sounds very vain, but I really didn't like having my picture taken all day Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. On a side note, my eyes are almost completely healed. Still not wearing my contacts yet, but maybe in a couple of days.
Back to the story - we get to Granny's and the festivities begin again. We have a quick lunch and it is time to open presents. Luke thoroughly enjoys handing out the gifts again. Did I mention that was also my favorite job as a kid?!? This year we started with the youngest, then went to the oldest, then next youngest, then next oldest. You get the picture. It just so happened that Daniel and I were in the middle. He was the last youngest and I was the last oldest. I don't know that I really like that. Luke got all kinds of great stuff at this celebration, but his favorite was a Thomas the Tank Engine train track from Granny (pictures at the bottom). That night was lots of fun hanging out with cousins and aunts and uncles. Santa always came to Granny and Pa's house for me as a kid and I'm loving it that Santa is able to do the same for Luke. Luke slept with Nana and Papa on Christmas Eve night and wasn't able to go to sleep. I went in and layed down with him for a minute and we heard a noise at the window. He looked up and said, "What's that?" I told him that it was probably Santa and he wouldn't be able to stop until Luke went to sleep. The kid went to sleep very quickly after that because he really wanted that McQueen shake beep beep that he thought Santa had.
Luke woke up ready to see if Santa had came on Christmas morning. Santa even left the McQueen beep beep that Luke asked for. After opening Santa presents we were off to Grandma and James' house for another round of Christmas festivities. We had same great food and fellowship with family and Luke was able to play with more cousins and open more presents. I got the new Point of Grace CD playing dirty Santa. I was pretty pumped about that. Daniel won a tool bag that I am hoping that he will use to finish the backsplash in my kitchen!
Then we were off to Daniel's parents. Luke got a Wal-Mart gift card that he has been using to buy accessories for his Thomas train track.
We hit the after Christmas sales on the 26th and 27th. We also made a stop by the Dillon office on the 27th to visit with Jynger. While we were shopping on the 27th we received a call that Granny, who had been sick since Thanksgiving, was being admitted to the hospital. We went home and packed up and headed to Granny's. Mom was able to spend the nights at the hospital and we were all able to hang out up there during the day. On that Friday night all the cousins but one (Bailey we wished you had been there!) spent the night at Granny's. We had fun. It was me and Jennifer, then two 13 year olds, a 8 year old and a 6 year old - then Luke of course. Granny was able to come home on Sunday and I think that she is feeling much better.
Luke and I also came home on Sunday evening. We had to get ready for the big New Year's party with the teenagers. My house was packed with activity. Most all of the kids stayed all night and didn't sleep. We've all been sleeping pretty much all day around here.
Hope all of you had a great Christmas and Happy New Year. Enjoy all the pics - I had problems just picking a few!
***A funny thing that Luke is doing now - Daniel taught him how to "pretend" get his nose stuck to someone elses nose. Then he will pull apart and say "Ouch" and rub his nose. There is a pic of Luke and Daniel being stuck in the slide show!