Whew! What a nice break.  Since the 17th, Colin has been on school holiday, and then Kase took off from work for the holiday week, which means no internet time for me, which was a welcome break. I really enjoyed spending time with my boys before the holiday rush, and then my time with family was too fun and busy to worry about the ol’ blog. And to put the nail in my blogging coffin: I barely have any pictures to prove it.

Did Christmas and New Year’s happen if you don’t blog it? Dunno. But here’s the best I can do for you:

We started off the holiday break by taking a little road trip down 495 to Edaville Railroad where a Christmas Village and train ride were promised. We didn’t stay too long, but Colin loved the train ride and the various amusement rides offered, despite the 35 degree weather.

I started my holiday preparations. I love this part of the holidays- hanging stockings, wrapping last minute presents, baking cookies. Eating butter. You know, the usual stuff.

On Christmas Eve, we headed to Kase’s mom’s house to celebrate with his side of the family. My sister joined us as well, which made for a very special holiday this year. When we came home, I doled out the Christmas jammies.  Had to be done.  My sister and mother-in-law are good sports.

Then it was time to play Santa. Er, I mean, then Santa came! He went overboard.

Colin actually woke up on the later side on Christmas morning, which I suppose was his present to us. Such a sweetie.  We eventually made our way downstairs. Too distracted by the train around the tree, it took him a while to take in his loot.

(still obsessed with his train, but adding his brand new blocks to create a tunnel)

We were able to lounge around all day at the house, taking cat naps, playing scrabble and cooking up a yummy dinner:

We even celebrated with Christmas Poppers, or crackers, as the Brits call them. Oh and those are some Faux Bois silver chargers I got on Clearance at Target. They made me happy in a way that is not normal.

Unfortunately, we had to cut our after dinner conversation short since I started to experience contractions. Damn that Honey Baked Ham!  I continued to experience annoying Braxton Hicks for the rest of our break, and we took a quick trip to the doctor on New Year’s Eve. All systems were fine and dandy, so we headed home to our full house to celebrate the New Year with my family who made the trip up to see us. It was so nice to have my parents, sister and niece and my brother’s family with us. A perfect example of why we wanted to purchase a house- to fill it with family over the holidays, like the hermits we are.

We even hosted our neighbors for NYE- my neighbor is *not* Martha Stewart, but she comes pretty darn close:

We ushered out 2012 (note: we didn’t quite make it to ushering in the new year. We are lame) surrounded by family and new friends, 6 rambunctious  kids, a whining dog and about 5 new pounds according to the scale. And I have to say: this was one for the books- I so enjoyed our holiday break this year. Hope you did too. Happy 2013!