Christmas 2011

Christmas 2011 - I can sum it up with one word.

Fabulous.

Christmas Eve morning, I woke up - made four pies for the Reed Christmas dinner the following day - had everything finished by 11:00, did some running around with B, stopped and had lunch - then headed down to Christmas Eve mass with the Ball family.

Dinner was good, spending time with family is always nice.

B & I on Christmas Eve:

The girls were so excited for Christmas - their excitement was contagious! Loved it.

Afterwards, we came home and had our Christmas celebration/gift exchange so we could sleep in the next morning. The puppies knew there were 'things' in their stocking - and they could hardly contain themselves when we took them down. Callie Mae found her bone - and Chloe Fae just didn't have a big enough mouth to hold all of her new stuffed animals...

And they got new beds - which Callie lays in regularly - and Beaner.... intermittently. I'm thinking once the Christmas tree is down, and we put them in their regular spots in front of the window, she'll lay in hers regularly also.

Christmas morning - slept in (just like we planned) and then headed up to the Reed family Christmas. It was the big one this year. 30-some people in one house... But it was fun. We had a great time.

B & I on Christmas Day 2011:

And here's the fam-damily: (at least those that were able to make it to town this year - yes... there's more that weren't able to make it. Like 15 more...)

I got to meet THREE of my GREAT nieces that I had never met before. So this was a super-exciting Christmas for me. Here's little Peyton Ann (complete with her air hockey puck-to-the-head injury) She's still cute, even with the head injury - poor little thing - she looks exactly like her mother did when she was a baby... Only she has blue eyes - and better clothes.

And then we have Madelyn (Maddy) & Eleana (Ellie) - I hope I spelled their names correctly... these two little girls were added 'officially' on December 22nd, to my niece Stace & her husband Eric. They did foster care for these two little girls, Initially with visits to their biological mom, with hopes that she would get her life together, (I don't know the full story - so I'm not going to try to guess) - but time goes by, and the girls went up for adoption - Stace & Eric had fallen in love with them - so they adopted them into their family - and I have two adorable new GREAT nieces. What a special Christmas for them...

Ellie:

Maddy: