Post Holiday

We are slowly beginning the post-Christmas recovery period around here.  It's a painful process,  easing back into real life.  So we aren't doing anything too extreme.  Like maybe today, we will get dressed before 4 pm.  Maybe even venture out to get milk later on.  You just have to take these things one step at a time. I  have to go into work for a few hours tomorrow though, so it's time start stepping.

Audrey and Livvi are spending the next couple days at Kim and Terri's house down south.  Terri has horses.  Audrey has been itching to get down there to those horses for months.  She hasn't seen Terri's horses since she was four and we visited them for Thanksgiving when they lived in Denver.   Terri also has a princess room, which was enough to get Livvi's attention, and she wasn't going to miss out on any of that business.  It makes it very quiet around here to have my girlies gone.  So I spent  the morning engrossed in the cavernous waste that is our bank account.  Then  I cleaned up the family room.  We did a  pretty good job of avoiding small plastic pieces this year, but still.  The amount of garbage generated by Christmas is astounding.

Here is what Christmas looked like this year.

Its always a party when Grandma and Grandpa come over!

Playing ABBA dance while we wait for Christmas dinner

The unbearable lightness of Christmas ham

We didn't take many pictures this year, but we did have a nice Christmas.   We had Steve with us this year, which helped a little bit to fill the void left by not having Alisa.  Christmas morning was sad, when all the stockings had been filled, then taken off their hooks by their respective owners, and Alisa's was still dangling there, empty and all alone.   It was weird too, because by the time we got around to skyping with her on Christmas morning, in the middle of our festivities,  it was late Christmas night where she was, and everything was over.  Apparently the Germans celebrate on Christmas Eve, and on a much smaller scale than we Americans.  But she had a good time, and was with friends.  And we had a good time too.  My parents came out for Christmas dinner and spent a good chunk of the day with us, then Em and Norrie came over later and played games until late into the evening.  The next day we took off for Amy's and Christmas/birthday with the Metcalfs.  It was a good Christmas all around and now we can breathe again.  At least for a  few days, then we will head into BIRTHDAY MODE!!!!