Christmas

Christmas as always was really fun, and really exhausting. With 4 separate parents to see we are very very busy, but Emma loves it because she gets to open presents again and again. Every year it gets more fun though when it comes to the magic of Christmas. At 4 1/2 Emma totally understands the true meaning of Christmas and can tell the whole nativity story. She also is into the magic of Santa Claus and on her own this year reminded us to make cookies for him and leave something out for the reindeer. I totally get now why my mom always told us it was more fun for her than it was for us. Emma also knows most Christmas songs, even ones that kids don't usually know, and would sing from the moment she got up until she went to bed. She now carries the nickname I did as a child, "Our little Christmas spirit. I always get a little sad on Christmas though because I love the spirit of Christmas and to know it's come to an end and I have to put all my decorations down that I love so much is a little depressing, but luckily it comes back around so fast. Okay and also I love wrapping presents and making bows for them all and having them arranged just perfectly under the tree and to see them destroyed so quickly is a little hard, but that's just my "OCD" talking. We had a fun day though. We did the traditional Christmas morning with just the 4 of us in our PJ's. Making sure Santa ate the cookies and drank the milk. The kids LOVED their Santa present, a huge train table with a huge track and 3 trains. Good thing because it took 4 1/2 hours for Santa to put it together, just to find out it was too big to get in the house so it was another 90 min of taking some apart to get it in and then re-assembling it. All worth it of course. Then my mom and brother came over for presents. Then we had our annual brunch with a lot of our family. Then we opened presents with my dad. Then we went to Josh's mom's house to open presents, and then stayed for dinner where my mom and brother joined us. See what I mean, it's little crazy, but it's a lot of fun too and I love spending time with the people I love. I wouldn't want to go a Christmas without any of them!. I'm so thankful that we are able to have such a nice Christmas because not everyone can, so I tried to remember how lucky we are anytime I started feeling a little overwhelmed. So goodbye Christmas, but we'll see you next year.

Emma's first tap dance recital

Emma switched from ballet to tap this year and it's a lot harder but she's enjoying it. They had a Christmas recital and it was cute too watch, but since they had only been in class for 3 months there wasn't much to showcase. I'm looking forward to the June recital when she would have had another 6 months of classes. She could just stand on stage and look cute and I'd be proud so I guess it doesn't really matter. Here's the video of the dance though.

Lily

December 2nd I had the honor of witnessing a life enter this world. Lilyanna Christine Rodriguez entered this crazy world so now I have another person in my life that I love so much. My kids love her too and I'm glad they have another friend to play with who lives right down the street.