We put up Christmas lights on our house, yay! Xander loves them, so he's been thrilled that it is Christmas time. We go on Christmas light safaris to see other lights in the nearby neighborhoods.

Xander has been playing with Legos lately, which has been so much fun for me! I built the yellow castle from the instructions that my mom has saved for 30 years. She's amazing!

Kayli has started napping in her Pack and Play. Travis thought that she was so cute sleeping in there with a blanket all bunched up as a pillow just like an adult would do that he actually took a picture of her.

We finally bought a Christmas tree! I'm quite proud of it because it was a $400 tree that I got for $150 via some savvy shopping and a couple of coupons. It blazes with the light of 1500 suns, though, so I unplugged the prelit strings and put on some more subdued colored lights that Xander LOVES. They do tricks, so he really likes them.

There are two adorable videos of Kayli dancing, too, so please check those out!

We came up to Michigan on Thursday immediately after preschool. It was a very pleasant and fast drive, and we got here just in time for dinner. The evening was filled with playing with Legos, watching Rudolph, and telling Xander, "No, we aren't opening presents yet."

The Brehobs had the chance to come over the next morning, which was great! We always love to see them, and it doesn't happen often enough. We spent time in the basement, where the kids played surprisingly well together, and were actually quiet enough for some conversation! It was shocking. Xander really enjoyed interacting with Kira, I think, and it underscores my mom's theory that he really needs the chance to play with kids his age on a one-on-one basis. The best part was watching the big kids chase each other around the house as we were saying our goodbyes.

After they left, Travis and I headed out for a kid-free lunch at Olga's. It is in Briarwood, but it was amazingly not hell. We so love Olga's. We need one in Dayton. If we plan things right, we may get to stop in Toledo on our way home for more Olga's. Mmmm.

In the evening, we had plans to have fondue with Melissa, Jeff, Rebecca, and my parents. I have always loved fondue, so I was pretty excited about it! Melissa wasn't feeling very good, so she and Jeff didn't come. Xander loved the fondue! He thought it was so much fun to cook his own meat! He ate so much that I'm surprised he could still walk afterwards. Grandma helped him with his cooking, but he really was very careful with the pointy pointy fork and the boiling hot oil.

There are some extremely cute pictures of the kids in Santa costumes.

Christmas day was different than usual. My poor mom was struck by the stomach flu that hit all of us last weekend. She spent the day on the couch under a blanket. It was certainly a different day without my mom's active energy in the room. She really didn't want to postpone it because she knew how much Xander was looking forward to opening presents. We did open presents, and we even managed to have a decent meal, though we wouldn't have forgotten the crescent rolls if my mom had been up and about!

We had a very quiet day at home with my parents. My mom felt better, so she got to play with the kids. I worked on my dad's networking problems; he said that my repair of them was the best Christmas present ever. We stayed around until te late afternoon, then headed to Irish Hills to see Travis's family.

The Doom family has a gathering every year on Christmas Eve. It is a chance for Travis to see his cousins, aunts, and uncles, and for our kids to see the other kids in the family. They had a good time this year--mostly playing with the cars that Troy and Karen gave them. I enjoyed talking to a lot of people; they have universally been welcoming and friendly to me. It is such a big family--so different from mine.

Despite our late night, we were up at 7:00am to open Santa presents. Draven and Kaden had been up since 4:00am or 5:00am. The kids tore right through the presents, all at once! It was very different from the restrained present opening that I'm used to in my family... I don't think I even saw all of the presents that we opened, and I'll be surprised if we didn't lose any in the discarded wrapping paper!

Xander is getting along very well with Draven, which was suprising because Draven is 8. We thought Xander and Kaden would be closer because she's only 5, but he's gravitated to Draven, and Draven doesn't seem to mind. They've been assembling toys together and playing video games together. It is going to be very fun to have the kids' cousins around again.

Karen was sick today, so we didn't see her or Kaden after about noon. This stomach flu is really changing Christmas this year.

Everyone except for Travis made it up for the early part of the day, so that was nice. We ate cinnamon bread again, and the kids played with their new toys. Troy was feeling sick today, so he was on the couch a lot. Everyone left around 2:30pm. Troy and Karen are heading to Viriginia to visit an old friend, and we want to get home to open more Santa presents and relax in our own house for a while.

I rearranged the rooms a bit so that Xander's tall bed moved into our sitting room. It just wasn't comfortable with him sleeping all the way down the hall, so he's sleeping in our sitting room now. These are before and after pictures of the move. Probably only interesting to me!

It was a beautiful day outside, so the kids and I took a walk (well, motorcycle) down to the mud pit at the end of the road. Xander loves it there. He took several of the pictures, which is why I'm actually in them. Isn't Kayli cute in her fuzzy white sweater?

Oh, and the first picture is just proof that my house is not always as neat as many people seem to think it is.

I made a sling for Holly, who has just announced that she and Tom are expecting a baby in August. Yay! This was my first attempt at a sling, and I'm very pleased with how well it turned out. It is reversible, even, which is so cool. This one was for Holly, and I made a larger one for Tom, because there is no way they could share like Travis and I do. I'm going to make a nifty reversable one for me as soon as I find the perfect fabric.

We celebrated Virtual New Year tonight. This is a tradition we started back at Michigan State. We got together with our friends and celebrated New Year's Eve a few days early because some of us were traveling during actual New Year's Eve. We get together for dinner, then after we've eaten and it seems like the right time, we grab a watch and count down to some arbitrarily selected minute. I think it was 7:37pm tonight.

The best part about the evening was that the kids played together on the floor in the living room while we chatted at the dining room table! We are beginning to believe that there might be a time when we could play board games with our friends again. Everyone was safely home by 8:30pm. It was a great evening!

After everyone headed home, we put the kids to bed and then watched Not Another Teen Movie, which was so bad that it was good. Travis and I have a tradition of watching movies on New Year's Eve that are not good but are enjoyable. Last year was Shaolin Soccer, which was hilarious. This year's selection made us laugh, so we were satisfied.

Happy New Year!