Christmas Pictures--Part One of Many

I am backdating some posts so they are in my 2011 blog book. I am going to order my "2011 blog book" once I get caught up, but I want the Christmas and Florida pictures to show up in the right year. Below are just some random Christmas pictures and of our Christmas with Hoppy and Mimi. They came on December 23rd, which feels like a long time ago as I'm typing this on 1/4/12. We had dinner, exchanged gifts, etc. As a side note, the kids have been so wound up with the holidays that I have not been good at taking a lot of pictures because I'm always after them. I put Nick up to the task, but am not thrilled with the results (sorry Nick). Between December 23-January 2nd (Christmas & FL) there are 760 pictures I just loaded onto my computer and I don't see that many good ones :-(

Lesson to self--if you want it done right and are going to be picky, do it yourself.

Hoppy and Mimi with Jack

I got Hunter a three piece luggage set for Christmas from us...for our FL trip. He was very excited about it and was pretty helpful carrying it on and off the plane. The suitcase was a carry on and fit all his clothes for FL. The kid needs to be put to good use now that he's capable of helping us out!
Jack frequently scowls and makes weird faces
He loves wearing capes around the house
I took some random pictures of our Christmas trees. This is our main one in the family room. My mom helped to decorate it, along with Hunter. I LOVE my trees and it's so much prettier in person--the picture barely does it justice. I LOVE ornaments. I'm such a dork, but I like to take them out and remember where they all came from as I put them on the tree....it's so fun!

I loves these too...I got Nick the frog one this year--get it, Hopwood, frogs hop...lol.

This was from last year--I buy them for Nick b/c I want them, but shouldn't buy gifts for myself like some people in my house do..

I have one that I got from a co-worker back in 2005 where it was just Nick and I. How things have changed!

Each year since we've been married, Nick has gotten me a nice ornament for Christmas with the year on it. Above is my 2011 one. I look forward to it and they have been mostly Waterford ornaments, which have a tag with the year on it. The only bad thing is they are quite heavy and the tag with the year is so small and not permanently attached to the ornament.

I love these little decorated cookie letters. We have an H, J, J, and N for everyone in the family. (minus Chopper)

My mom set up this small tree in our dining room...I have one more small one that I didn't set up this year. Maybe next year Hunter will want one in his room? I asked him this year, but he said no. He is a creature of routine. My parents started putting these up two years ago (our first Christmas in this house) and I LOVE it. I don't have the patience to do it, but my parents each did one half, Hunter helped, and it looks so cool. The one year I attempted to help I apparently did not do it quite good enough, so I was banned from helping. Pretty smart of me, huh? Ha! I do that with lots of things...just ask Nick...Ironing clothes or pretty much anything else I don't want to do. Plus I can stroke Nick's ego by telling him how good he is at ironing or saving money by grocery shopping.

I have lots more catching up to do this week with Christmas and Florida pictures!

I'm SO tired this week, so if I sound a little crazy it might be b/c I'm slightly delirious and somewhat crazy.