~Sisters~: 2012

She's a STARFISH!

We are so proud of this little one! She passed her last session of swimming lessons and has now moved onto being a Star Fish! I'm really surprised at how good she is getting at swimming. She can swim underwater for a good distance and she is learning the different strokes. I think it helped that she was the only one in her class this session. She got a lot of one on one instruction. Lily really likes swimming and I think we'll keep her in it!

Reindeer Food

Lily putting the Reindeer food out in the yard before going to bed on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve

It has been a tradition since I was born to spend Christmas Eve with my dad's side of the family. Grandma and Grandpa Paces are no longer with us and one of my dad's sisters lives in Colorado so it is spent with our family and two of my dad's sisters and their families.

We enjoyed Jack and Mary's Chicken for dinner and lots of other delicious side dishes. It is a tradition to have a "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake every year and it was my turn to bring it this year. There is a funny story that goes along with this year's cake...I sent Jason to the store at 3:00pm to pick the cake up (HY Vee closed at 4:00pm). I also sent a small list (3 items to be exact) with him. He gets back home around 3:45 with some groceries and a cake I also assumed. I get a call at 3:55 saying "Hi, this is Hy Vee reminding you to pick up your cake. We close in 5 minute." Jason's response to me was "It wasn't on the list!" He did make it back to Hy Vee in time for the cake!

After the cousins and Aunts left we opened Christmas presents with my brother, nephew, sister, nieces and mom and dad. It is too late to take the little ones to 11:00pm Christmas service...as we learned last year, so when we were done we headed home and did our Santa preparations at our house.

Mom and Dad Paces

Watching Ga Ga's snow globe

Dad and his sisters, mom, cousin Holly

Cousins

My cousin's son, Kaden, in the middle...drove from Houston, TX

My cousin's son Bentley from TX

The "almost didn't have you" cake

Presley

Ugly Christmas T-Shirt

Jahrran

So excited that Aunt Kylie got her Rock Star Barbie!

Avery and her Baby Belle

Who's this little one? It's P-Diddy!

Maddie and her Uggs

Ga Ga and Lily

Christmas on the Farm

We packed up and made a trip up to Newcastle to celebrate Christmas with Jason's family last Saturday. We got into town around 2:30pm and drove right to the Fire Hall to see Santa! Santa was there with lots of little goodies for the kids, and even some for the adults! They had a drawing and each of the girls got a present and Jason won $25 in Newcastle dollars! It was fun for all!

We got back to the house and unpacked and just relaxed. Matt, Sabina and cousin Miles got into town a few hours after we did so the girls played with their cousin on Saturday night. Grandma Romaine made a yummy casserole for dinner and then the girls had baths, got jammies on and headed to bed! I had been sick for about 5 days at this point so I went to bed with the girls.

Avery decided that she didn't want to sleep much on Saturday night and woke up, and I mean WIDE AWAKE, at 1:30am and was up until about 2:00pm on Sunday. This made for one tired and crabby little girl and some tired parents. I went for a freezing cold run on the country hills Sunday morning and then came home and got ready for the day's festivities. We had a noon meal with all of Jason's siblings and their families. There were lots of yummy things to eat! The kids opened presents after lunch and then the guys took the little ones out for a ride on the toboggan...minus Avery who crashed even before she opened up presents. Sunday evening we played Pitch and Bingo and just enjoyed being with family. It isn't very often when you can get everyone together at the same time. We did miss Gary and Becky and family who weren't able to be there from California, but we were able to see them on SKYPE that afternoon. We also missed Uncle John who was at home battling the stomach flu...no fun at all!

Thank you to Romaine and Eddie for hosting another wonderful Christmas celebration!