Happy New Year!

Shhhhh. Can you hear that? That, my friends, is the sound of relief. The sound of no more holiday parties, no more last minutes trips to the store, no more frantic 2am gift wrapping sessions, no more cooking, no more baking, no more preparing......no more.

*sigh*

When people are asked what their favorite day of the year is I believe most respond with the typical "Christmas" answer.

Not me.

My favorite day of the year? New Years Day.

It follows my second favorite day of the year. New Years Eve.

These last couple weeks have just flown by in a whirlwind. In a good way. As much belly-aching as I do about my to-do lists and feeling overwhelmed I, believe it or not, truly do secretly enjoy the hustle and bustle of the Nov. and Dec. holiday season. I get overwhelmed at times and I have the occasional stressed out sleepless night but all-in-all I enjoy everything about it.

Our Christmas was wonderful.

I thought Christmas was ruined this year when Hefty found Santa's stash and showed Dreamy, who in turn showed Smurfette. I was devastated when my DD came up to me and said "Mama, the boys showed me a bunch of toys in the basement and said they were our Christmas presents and I think they were tricking me but the toys I saw were toys that I put on my list. Were they tricking me, mama?" I recovered quickly with a "Santa sometimes visits early to make Christmas day easier for him" explanation. "He hides the toys and then returns Christmas morning to finish wrapping the gifts and puts them under the tree." She bought it. And thankfully I had half the gifts wrapped already so they didn't see everything.

There was still excitement in the air on Christmas Eve. Carrots were left out for the reindeer and brownies and milk (and a lactaid) were left out for Santa. I was so disappointed and angry that the boys would ruin Christmas for each other that I told them all their toys would be returned (I'm cruel like that). When the boys woke up Christmas morning and saw that the gifts were not returned Dreamy got a little a teary eyed and actually kissed me on the mouth and gave me a huge hug. This may seem like no big deal to you but to put how huge this is into perspective...my little Dreamy is a little OCD about kissing on the mouth. I haven't received a kiss from this child in YEARS. He'll allow me to kiss his cheek and he'll pretend kiss me on my cheek but that's it. But I got a voluntary smooch and a tearful & heart felt "thank you mom" when he saw that his gifts were under the tree. Made my day.

It was a rare treat to spend Christmas morning with Grandma & Grandpa. They have been staying with us for the past couple weeks visiting from Alabama. I'm sure she'll appreciate that I've put this photo on my blog.

The family arrived around 2pm for our Christmas celebration.

We ate LOTS of food.

We Jammed out to Rock Band on the WII. The boys' favorite Christmas gift.

My niece did the singing.

My Grandma with her most recently born Great Grandchild.....My cousin's baby.

Dreamy was glued to his coveted DS.

The kids all decorated gingerbread men.

My charming mother told me I look like Oprah.

Go ahead. Take a moment to let that sink in.

My MOTHER! Told me I look like Oprah.

Hmmm....What could it be?

The eyes?

The nose?

The lips?

The hair?

Skin color?

The only resemblance I can see is viewed from the rear. THANKS mom! =)

Two days later we had another Christmas party with my Dad's side of the family. More food. More fun.

My Grandma's reaction to the heritage story book I gave her was priceless. She loved it!

Last night was our annual New Years party. Nothing makes me happier than bringing in the new year surrounded by our closest friends. 20 adults and 20 kids. Unfortunately, I only got a few photos because I kept forgetting to grab the camera.

And now I can breathe. The holidays are officially over. The New Year has officially begun.

I sincerely hope that every one of you had a blessed holiday season and will enjoy a happy and healthy 2009.