Christmas hangover.
What a nice Christmas.
I Had some fun with the creative gift wrapping and really threw Kelly for a loop when she unwrapped and saw a diaper box. Thankfully she was just as excited as I was about getting her caboodle, it was like a right of passage kind of thing. Something to put her treasures in.
The kids all did really well, scratch that, they bounced off the walls all morning

long wanting to open everything. We pacified that by letting the kids watch Despicable Me while we waited for Nina(my mom) to arrive.
The kids scored as usual but nothing crazy, well except Wyatt asked for and received a pogo stick.
We had a lovely afternoon over at his mom's house where Aunt Margaret was visiting from Mississippi and her daughter and son in law came down from Phoenix
 for dinner before taking Aunt Margaret back to Phoenix with them.
The kids sure did fall in love with Aunt Margaret, hell we all adore her, so the whole family was kind of bummed to see her go.
We spent Sunday just relaxing. I mean still in pj's at noon. It was a great day. Yes we did some laundry and some cleaning up but we also watched Julie and Julia, loved it, we watched some football, watched  Shrek forever, really liked it and

read a whole book. The kids played and played. We grazed on leftovers and candy all day. It was just a great day.

As a gift to the grandparents this year I took the plunge and made them photo books.
Now I hear all sorts of stories about the love/hate of getting these type of "all about us" books so I was nervous about doing them.
I used the Shutterfly template and just imported my photos and then added captions. It couldn't have been easier! I adjusted some of the photo placements and wowsers it was done. Shutterfly was having a buy one get each additional half off with free shipping, HELLO! what a gonga!
And the family's reaction... they all really loved it!
I called my dad the day I received my copies and he had already opened his. To hear my father say that it was something he will treasure warmed my heart.
Now I know my mom would like it because she pretty much gets me and my thinking but I wasn't sure how my Mother in law would like it.
It was a HUGE hit!
What a relief. Seriously, knowing that even though I thought it was an easy gift they greatly appreciated what I capture through the year made my heart swell. Especially when I sometimes get that look of "why do you always have a camera?" I caught looks and moments that had the family giggling. The family favorite was a picture of Rob and Chelsea asleep on the couch together one evening. It also was cool to have my mil show her family my lightning picture that made the paper.
I guess I'm hoping my mother in law (mil) is starting to get me.
Poor Rob was giving me a ration of crap because I ordered 3 of these but not one for us and he had yet to see the book so as my mom flipped through hers he was asking to see it next.
anyway Christmas weekend went well, and as of tomorrow Rob is off on vacation the rest of this week!
I'll post tomorrow about the (not so) quick gift and story I made for my brother and sister in law
*Carrie*