I'm still dazed and sleepy from the holidays, but I'm back!

Although I have been MIA on my own blog, I have tried hard to keep up with all of you lovely ladies by sneaking peeks here and there at yours.

We have been going, going, going at my house. My SIL flew in and I enjoyed a day alone with her shopping and catching up. We had a rough start when I first came into the family but now I can honestly say  that she really is one of my best friends. I just love being with her. I usually laugh so hard and smile so much it is as if I've been enjoying a few cocktails without having to deal with the hangover.

Sadly she is now back in Georgia and I have to wait until our February vacation when we head south to see her again.

This year we had 2 holiday parties and 3 Christmas "mornings" so we were pretty busy. The 1st holiday party was with my family and is normally stressful and fills you with regret for spending 3 hours of your life dealing with such BS on the holidays. This year it went as well as it could for me since I'm still having a hard time with the loss of my mother.It was because of the loss of my mother that everyone was on their best behavior.

The 2nd party as at my In laws and we all had a good time. I thank god for being blessed with the wonderful family that I was lucky enough to marry into. I truly consider my mother in law a very good friend. What, what? you heard it right. My MIL is a very. good. friend. I should have video taped myself trying to teach them how to do a Yankee Swap it was well... interesting, frustrating, maddening, yup that is the one :-)

We traveled back to my family home the night before Christmas Eve and had our 1st Christmas "morning" opening presents there on Christmas Eve. My step father (really my only father) joined has the entire time and I saw some him enjoy some truly happy moments with my children. That was a wonderful Christmas present in its own. The boys had already received way to many toys at this point and Santa hadn't even visited us yet. What is it with Grandparents getting grandchildren toys that they would have NEVER given their on children? As I like to say Grandparents are whats wrong with the world :-)

We returned home on Christmas Eve and spent the rest of the night up the road at my In Laws decorating cookies for Santa and visiting with family. I really loved doing the cookies with my little one and his cousins, Sugar Balls helped too. Once home with the kids asleep we set out to give Santa a hand displaying all the toys he had gotten for the boys. That was really fun, this was the first year that SB and I got to sneak around the house and help Santa. We LOVED playing Elf and will cherish that time forever.

Since the boys are still young we got to sleep in until 7 on Christmas morning. My In laws and SIL came to our house to see the boys find their toys from Santa before we finished the day at my In Laws. Lets just say it was a long but wonderful day that started with stockings at 7:30 and ended with the last present being opened around 12:30... We stopped for breakfast and potty breaks. We also stopped to open and play with many a toys during the process.

Everyone was spoiled way to much as is the case every year because as my MIL says we may not be here next year.

I was blessed with a new treadmill (which I LOVE) as hand me down iPad because SB got the new iPad 2 (that I LOVE and no longer have to steal from SB for hours at a time) A new hot pink pocket cam, many books, Disney World Tickets, Adobe Photoshop Elements, and many more wonderful gifts.  We were very blessed with time, loved ones, and presents.

More to Come

-L