James & Carolanne

Well another year has now come and went. Can hardly believe that it is already 2012. Happy New Year all!

We had a fun and enjoyable Christmas time. We decided that we would let the kids both open a gift each day a couple days before hand so that there was not as much all at one time. This went well. James had built a doll house and I had decorated it and Ben tested it out and gave his input. It was a great success. Julia loves it and both Ben and Julia get lots of use out of it. We had it in our dinning room under a sheet for a long time till Christmas time. Julia never was curious as to what was behind that sheet. It was a good thing to, because I don't know where else we would have put it till Christmas time that I could have still continued to work on it. I am glad that it has been well liked. I know that I had fun putting it together for her. My parents had made me a doll house when I was young and wanted to do the same thing for Julia. When she is older and so longer wants a doll house it can be converted into a book shelf, but hopefully that will not be for many more years.

We got Ben a scooter with 3 wheels. So now Ben can scoot around our complex with the other children in our complex that ride their scooters around our place.

The kids both got other presents as well. Some are more of a hit then others, but it is so cool watching their expressions.

We have a little nativity set for the kids and Julia has been carrying baby Jesus with her all over the place. We will hear her call out "Where baby Jesus". Last year we introduced singing Happy Birthday to Jesus and having a birthday cake. This has been great to see the kids reaction to. Everywhere we went for Christmas Julia would ask "We sing Happy Birthday Jesus" and she would start singing Happy Birthday Jesus at any time like in the car or in the store or during nap it did not matter to her.

We celebrated Christmas with James' side on Christmas Eve. We talked to Auntie Bitsy on Skype ate good food and Grammy read the Christmas story and of course we opened up gifts. Ben was thrilled to get an excavator and a bowling set as well as his first Harmonica.

We celebrated Christmas with my side of the family on Christmas day and it went well. It was a full house, but my mom had this great idea of putting up tables in the garage for the food and that worked so well.

Now to see what the 2012 year will bring.

Current update: The doll house was a huge hit, but not the scooter.