Happy Holidays!

Where did December go? I swear it went by faster this year than ever before. Maybe it was because Thanksgiving was so late in November, or possibly our trip to NYC. I think the stress of removing the hallway wallpaper and repairing it and the kitchen before our visitors arrived played a role too. I just can't believe that Christmas is over already. But what a crazy wonderful holiday! We spent Juliann's first holiday here at home. My side of the family came up on Christmas Eve to celebrate with us so we didn't have to travel with Jules-THANK YOU!!! Mom, Dad, Grandma Sugars, Ryan and Meredith all made it up to Richmond by lunchtime. Heather and her Ryan were here by late afternoon. We had lots of yummy food, wine, and beer and a ton of presents to open. I should have taken a picture of the tree and the mountain of presents underneath and spilling out into our living room. You couldn’t walk within 4 feet of the tree-it was crazy! And let’s just say that Juliann is one lucky kid. She had more gifts than anyone else did! Being the first baby in the family means that everyone spoils her! She’s in for a rude awakening in a few years when everyone is fawning over the next kid. She got a doll house, a stuffed Rompy dog, a neat toy that pops balls into the air, a jack in the box and much more. We spent the rest of the evening opening up gifts from each other and sharing lots of laughs! My big gift from David was a new video camera and he got a brand new camera to replace the one he broke at the UVa-Tech game.

Christmas morning was equally as wonderful. Santa brought Jules even more neat toys-including her Leap Frog table which she LOVES! I swear the child is either going to play a musical instrument or be a dancer. The minute she hears music-doesn’t matter where we are-she starts bobbing her head and bouncing all around. It is hysterical! All of the adults in the room were laughing so hard we were almost crying watching her move to the music of her new table. I’ll try to upload a video from my new video camera tomorrow.

After a great Christmas Day lunch everyone headed out. Friday afternoon we then headed up to Lexington to see David’s family. We spent all of Saturday walking around and enjoying the beautiful weather. It felt more like early spring than almost January! We also had more wonderful food (David and I are now officially on a diet) and opened presents-more toys for Juliann! We left Lexington Sunday afternoon and headed to Amherst for a quick dinner at Grandma Sugars house because my cousin (and David’s VMI roommate) was in with his family. Finally, around eleven Sunday evening, we made it back home to Richmond. It was a whirlwind of a holiday but we had a great time spending it with our families. We took a ton of pictures so I'll try to post some later this week. Hope everyone had a great holiday and Happy New Year!