The party continues

The day after Christmas, and we are still celebrating! Nana and Papa arrive around suppertime, and Uncle Todd and Uncle Hector arrive late Friday evening, bringing our newest member of the family. Baby Cole was born in October. Alex and Casey are so excited to get to hold him.

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Saturday the rest of the family arrives--The Denver Smiths drive in by lunchtime, and that evening they are lined up on the sofa, waiting to open more gifts-------------------

Merry Christmas

We started the day with our own Christmas tree, where we discovered we are finally a 21st century family--we got a Wii! And lots of other great stuff, too. We can't wait to play with it all, but we must...we have to get going down to grandma's!

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Grandma opens the first gift before lunch. We needed those two new place settings of Christmas dishes to set the table!

We had a great dinner, we are all too full, but that won't keep us away from the tree! Those presents are just too tempting...the wrapping paper starts to fly.

Everyone is all smiles, and some of us can't wait to get started.







We end the day with a walk around the pond.

Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Work is almost complete on our do it yourself basement update. We started out with a theme room--I think it was 50's juke joint inspired. We had the black and white tiled floors throughout. One room had wallpaper covered with tiny albums, the other wallpaper had bowling, juke boxes, old cars, etc. The wallpaper was not easy to get off, but we were determined and persevered...

Finally, a clean wall to prime and paint.

And we chose my favorite color, red! The tv room is all red, the game room has one red accent wall and paneling on the other three. We had golden wheat carpet installed, and have ordered some cabinets for the tv wall. Later we'll put in some bookshelves on the accent wall in the game room. Foosball, anyone?

Santa Brunch 12/7

We had a great time and wonderful food at the Santa brunch last weekend, and even ran into the man himself. Of course we're not too old to sit in his lap. How else will he know Alex wants an ipod and a cell phone for Christmas? Mom and Dad aren't buying either...