Christmas Day

In my mind, our Christmas morning was exactly how it should be. The only exception being it probably could have started an hour or two later. But with 2 young kids, we are used to waking up early. It was slow and relaxing. Quiet, filled with squeals and oohs and ahhs. Kate, like last year, would become so absorbed in the current gift she had opened that she would neglect her other presents. This just made the morning more fun as she would later discover another present to open. She was just as excited about Gwen's gift as she was her own. I love how magical Christmas is for kids.

Most of our photos from the morning are of Gwen smiling. That is pretty much all she does all day is smile. Mixed with a few shrieks, her current nickname is "Squeaky" because when bothered, she doesn't really cry, just squeaks--sometimes very loudly.

Kate modeling some of her new duds.

It was a very Merry Christmas. It was our first Christmas as a married couple that we didn't get on an airplane and were able to wake up Christmas morning in our own home. We love being with our families, but it sure was nice not packing a suitcase (or five). Now on to 2010...

Christmas Eve

It has been tradition in my family that we have a big Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve. When we were younger we would do a talent show and sing the 12 days of Christmas, the past few years our group has been a bit large for that. My mom hosts and always throws a great party, but with over 30 people there it was a little crazy!

A conversation with Santa. Kate only likes him when he's not real.

Gwen was obsessed with pulling ornaments off the tree. It made for a glittery mouth.
These two cousins are just 2 days apart!

The kids all had matching pajamas and we tried to get a picture of them all together. Gwen's face explains how she felt about it.

Chaos.

Christmas at our house

everyone got a new ornament for the year. can you guess who they belong to?

our tree.

smiley gwen

our gingerbread house. i can't believe it hasn't been picked apart by now.

stockings for four.

Merry Christmas!

trimming the tree

In years past we've used a pathetic 3 foot fake tree I had leftover from college because we were always traveling for Christmas. This year will be our first Christmas as a married couple that we are not traveling! So of course a real, live, good-smelling tree was bought, lit and trimmed. It smells great and Kate was really into decorating it--it was sweet. Although I do see why fake trees are much easier, and cleaner! For now we are enjoying the pine scent and looking forward to Christmas.

Donut Land

One dozen of our hot glazed original doughnuts? Coming right up... Last week we opened up a Krispy Kreme shop in Albuquerque, NM and it was a blast.

It's a long story about why we ended up here, but I'll spare you the details and let you know that we took the family to the opening and had a great time. The response from Albuquerque exceeded our expectations, we had a ton of press and TV news coverage, about 30 campers waited overnight in the snow for our restaurant to open at 5:30 AM (we gave the first 12 free doughnuts for a year). The opening was a huge success and helping the world get a little fatter never felt (or tasted) so good...

Here are some pics from the trip...

Santa

Santa made an appearance at a community story time. I tried bribing Kate with candy to sit on his lap, but even that didn't work, so you won't find her in these pictures! Gwen, being her easy-going self, was a good sport and was quite mesmerized by Santa.

She stared at him for a while trying to decide what she thought of him. And then finally gave a little smile for the camera!