As the children were nestled all snug in their beds...

David and Stacy were lying awake at 6:30 on Christmas morning listening to "Farmer Joe" (as we non-affectionately call him) using a TRACTOR to clear the snow off of his driveway. Mind you, if you remember my last post (which, I know, was like two weeks ago, I can't keep up), we didn't go to bed until after 2am so to be awoken, on this most beloved of holidays, before dawn by our very closest neighbor trying to maneuver a large size tractor back and forth in his little driveway...well, we were not well pleased.
Look, we know the guy just doesn't know better. I mean our whole subdivision used to be his farm land. But it's things like that and his huge black Lab that barks all hours of the day and night that just make it difficult, you know? Because of the way our house is situated (it sits much farther back than all the others) our back yard is mere feet from his and our bedroom window, of course, is closest of all.
Sigh....
Alright, back to Christmas. David and I never went back to sleep and a little after 8am, the kids were jumping out of their beds ready for the present mania to begin. I was able to catch a few photos as they decended the stairs (this was much to their annoyance believe me).


I just love Christmas morning. It is the peak moment of the whole season and it just ends too fast for me. I can distinctly remember as a child going to bed completely depressed on Christmas night. Sad, I know. Here you have been waiting for these presents for over a month now, dreaming of all the possibilities. Driving yourself crazy trying to peek or somehow get your mom to accidently slip what may be under the Christmas tree and now that you have them all, the gloom and disappointment is unbearable. Not that the presents weren't great and you wouldn't enjoy playing with them, it's just that the anticipation of the event is so much greater and exciting. That's the "catch" of Christmas.
Apologies for yet another tangent so I will move on. Ashton's Christmas morning was like a Star Wars wonderland between the deluxe (and I mean, that-costume-costs-what? deluxe) Obi Wan Kenobi costume that Santa brought complete with the force-action lightsaber that lights up and makes cool swooshing noises:



The creepy, talking Stormtrooper helmet accompanied with the official gun that my mom got him:


And later at grandma's house the biggest hit of them all: The Legos Star Wars: The Complete Saga for XBox 360. Here he is concentrating very hard as he opened it:



And here are a whole bunch of pictures that I am just going to throw out one-liners on:

Zander helping himself to Santa's leftovers...

Checking out the tent that Santa was kind enough to set up on Christmas Eve...


Ripping through the wrapping paper...


I'm not sure how convincing Zander's dark Sith Lord impression here is....


Cuddling while watching a movie late Christmas morning (don't be fooled though I am in both these pictures, I barely sat there a few minutes. Between big Christmas breakfast, cleaning up the chaos, trying to get everyone ready to go to grandma's and wrapping presents for other family members we will see later; a mom's Christmas morning is far from relaxing).



Later that day we had our delicious big holiday dinner over at David's mom's house. Even though it is only a mere month later from Thanksgiving, she goes all out again with the whole spread.


This time Ashton wanted to sit at the head of the table.


This is David's younger brother Joseph and his girlfriend Sarah. What do you think, do they look alike? (I mean David and his brother)


After dinner we always play games for awhile and the kids began to get restless.






Unfortunately, this led to Zander hitting the bottle again as he had the night before:


Which in turn lead to some rather suspect behavior on his part:


Shedding articles of clothing, slobbering over one's self, putting large objects upon one's head and stumbling around amidst giggles-I think we have all seen this routine before if you know what I mean :)

Overall, we had a really nice Christmas. This has been kind of a tough year for our family (as it has been for a lot of others too) and even though we didn't make it to Disneyland this year as we have the past few Christmases, we all enjoyed eachother's company and had time to relax and take in the holiday.



Our New Years was pretty low key too. David and I were able to go up to Sundance to see one of his friend's play there with his band. But before that we hit a nice dinner, which thanks to the fact that my sister Jamie and her discount card were in tow, was 50% off. I'm telling you, steak tastes so much better half off, it's unbelievable.



We had some fun with the fact that our chocolate dessert concoction was served in a martini glass...do I look drunk here?


And of course the night was capped off with a New Year's kiss on the stroke of midnight, which I have opted to include as one of my New Year's resolutions. David and I simply need to kiss more. Do we just forget how to do it when we get married or what?
(Sorry if this seems kind of risque all close up and everything, David was holding the camera since everyone else seemed to be occupied doing the like with their own significant others)



And here we are in 2009 with a blah 2008 behind us. Not that I didn't enjoy a lot of things about the year. My boys grew bigger, my butt grew smaller (yay!) and we had a lot of good times that created great memories. I am just ready for a new year with new hope and a positive outlook. We may not be able to do a lot about the worsening conditions in the world around us, but we can definitely do something about making our own little worlds a lot brighter. I hope that I am able to be a part of your brighter worlds in this New Year as I am deeply grateful for good friends and family that make life worth living.

Happy New Year!!