Part I: Merry Christmas

Okay, since I never did get around to posting while we were gone, I will probably add a few posts instead of doing it all in one long one.

So, we had a very joyous holiday celebrating with the Christmas Trifecta. That would be three straight days of holiday cheer. We started on Christmas Eve night celebrating with the Comande family (that would be Pat's side) at Grandma Iz's house. Unfortunately, Ella only got in a 45 minute nap before we headed over there. She was still on California time. So she had a meltdown for about an hour and half. But after that, she was cute and bubbly and waited patiently for us to open each of her toys to play with. I think one of her favorites was her new microwave! Much more high-tech than the one-button wonder on her play kitchen. Now, she has one that beeps, countdowns, has real buttons, and the food spins around! She also got a lot of other great gifts from everyone.

Day two of the Trifecta was quite busy. We opened gifts with Andrew's immediate family in the morning and then headed over to Aunt Sue's house for Christmas dinner. Everything was great there as well, despite a small meltdown again from Ella. We're beginning to think she's not so into family gatherings. ;-). She did love Aunt Sue's Finding Nemo aquarium musical snowglobe though! Christmas night we headed over to the Marriott to have dinner and open gifts with my mom and Dave. Ella was actually quite well behaved and didn't have any meltdowns! Yay!

Then we have day three of the Trifecta which would be the Isaacson Family Christmas. Now, these people know how to celebrate! Things got going around noon and didn't end until 10 or 11pm! It was so much fun to see everyone and with that amount of time, you really do get a chance to visit with everyone! We had another Ella meltdown. But we figured out she was getting her two-year molars so we gave her a little Motrin (love that stuff!) and she was a happy camper again.

We spent the rest of the week after Christmas taking full advantage of our in-house babysitters, Grand Tom & Grand Pat. We went to dinner and a movie (The Family Stone) with Ben & Jenelle. The next night, Andrew and I went to dinner and a movie (Harry Potter 4--excellent!), we went shopping, had lunch with a friend, saw some other friends, went to a wedding and out for dinner with the Comandes for New Year's Eve. I think both girls were really missing us by the end of the week! But it was so nice for Andrew and I to get out without the kids!

Hopefully I'll get some new photos posted soon! I have 250 new ones to go through. Look for those soon, maybe after the weekend.