Kansas Christmas

One of the greatest things about having two families to celebrate holidays with is that Christmas is twice as long. Since I tend to get a little blue after holidays and big events, I loved that I had a second Christmas to look forward to this year. Last week, we made our way to Kansas to celebrate with Matt's family.

On our way to good ol' AC, we stopped to visit some very good friends of ours. We've been friends for years, so it doesn't take long to settle into our hanging-out routine. Here are Matt and John, looking at something funny online, just like they always do.

Same old, same old - wait, what's that baby doing there?!!

Yep, we've added a new addition to our little friend-family! In November, John and Anna had a baby girl: Ruby Rose. We were very excited to meet the little one and hang out with old friends. It's funny that the visit was completely different, yet exactly the same.

Look at the happy family!

Little Ruby Rose.

After a fun visit, we were off again. We still had Christmas to celebrate!

Christmas tree!

We had a family gift exchange on New Year's Eve before heading off to a crazy NYE party! We got to visit MORE of our great friends, and welcome the New Year together.

Unfortunately, one of our group had to head home a little early and we didn't get to see her before she left. Fortunately, some awesome person invented Skype. The five/six of us played games and acted silly, which is pretty normal for us.

The boys dancing, skyping, and playing Settlers.

Finally, "Christmas Day" was here... again. We spent time with extended family who we don't see very often. Games were played, the kiddos opened presents, and LOTS of food was eaten. It was another great holiday.

Fun Christmas/New Year's!

And then it was time to head home. Matt went back to work this week and I started my student teaching. But we are about to leave our quiet life behind for the weekend as we embark upon a very exciting adventure. If we survive (just kidding... I hope), we will have lots of fun things to post next week. So keep your eye out...

Skiing Again

New Year's Eve was pretty subdued for us this year. We had a nice dinner, a little wine, watched the Avs game, and went to bed right after midnight. I'd feel pretty lame, but we had a good reason to take it easy. To start 2010, we were up bright and early on New Year's Day to head up to Loveland for more skiing.

This ski trip was pretty uneventful. In fact, there's not much to report, except that I'm awesome!

Seriously, I was so good this time. Maybe not "awesome," but I was way better than I have been. The last few times I went down the run I didn't fall at all and I was even able to turn. I made sure to take my time, and not let anyone pressure me. I know I may not be learning as fast as some people would be, but I'm just glad I'm improving!

Other than that, it was just a fun, relaxing day. And a great start to the new year.

Loveland. Starting to get busy.

Me. Awesome.

Me again. Yay.

Matt went off on his own to do some fun and harder runs. This is on the top of the mountain.

Beautiful day. Lots of skiers.

Yay.

I have a feeling we're gonna be spending a lot of our winter weekends in the mountains from now on.

New Year's Eve and Christmas Number Five

That's right, I said "five." I'm pretty sure I could go two years without another Christmas, after my Christmas overload this year. But it was fun.

I know you're anxious for more Christmas posts (I'm sure you just can't wait!), but first, New Year's Eve:

Matt and I had some of our friends and family over for a small New Year's Eve gathering. We were celebrating the new year, and my last day at my old job, which was the 31st.

I'm not sure what we were doing but Melissa looks creepy.

That's better.

Hanging out. Matt's playing with the cat's toy.

Still hanging out. And eating food.

Waiting for the countdown.

Melissa brought over some champagne that had been sitting in her folk's house for years and years and years.

We were pretty sure it wasn't supposed to be that dark.

And we were definitely sure it wasn't supposed to taste that disgusting. It had absolutely no fizz left and it was pretty gross. Luckily, we bought a back up in case the old stuff was way too old.

On New Year's Day we had our final Christmas celebration with my family.

Hanging out before dinner.

The pretty dinner table.

Chris usually doesn't let me take pictures of him, but I caught this when he wasn't looking.

There's the pretty baby. She's getting big!

My dad with the sparkly, sequined Santa hat.

We were also celebrating my niece's birthday, which was Monday. So we had cupcakes!

The birthday girl!

After Christmas presents and birthday presents, we played a cool new game, called Quelf. It was pretty crazy. I would have taken pictures, but Matt says I've been bugging him by taking pictures all the time. So here's one I found online instead:

It was pretty crazy. At one point, I was hiding in a closet upstairs waiting for everyone to find me. The first person got to move ahead three spaces. Good times.

So, I'm done with Christmas for at least another year. I don't even really want to think about Christmas anymore! But overall, it was a fun and joyful holiday season!