My final (backwards) update!
Thursday, December 25th
A VERY busy day, as most Christmases go in my family. Jonathan and I opened our presents for each other first thing in the morning. We had both already gotten our big gifts, I got a point and shoot camera that I can carry around in my purse and a Nintendo DS that I bought for our long road trip to Arizona for Thanksgiving. Jonathan got his new fancy high end trolling motor for his boat, just what he asked Santa for! Shaggy has ALWAYS loved Christmas!We went over to the Keyes’ house after our present time and exchanged gifts with them. They were very generous in thanking me for the photo shoot and gave me a Mikuni’s gift certificate. I can’t wait until I am over this cold and can taste again!
After the Keyes house, we went to the Intiso’s for breakfast. Since it was Isabella’s first Christmas, she was totally spoiled by everyone. The Keyes’ had sent us with a gift for her, one of those popping walkers with the little colored balls inside that pop as you walk. I totally remember having one of those when I was kid, though mine had no fancy buttons or music playing! Jonathan and I got her a little Winnie-the-Pooh doll, but next to the colorful, music-playing, popping walker, she wanted nothing to do with anything else! Isabella is a total punk rocker without her pony tail!In the afternoon, we all headed to Connie’s house for dinner. It was a huge family event and probably the first time we have ALL been together for a long time, including all the Presnalls. With Jeff and Heather living in San Diego, Eric about to live in Paris for eight months to do a Disneyland show there, and the Bonds living in So Cal, it’s rare to get us all together. But there we were, 17 adults and 7 kids, all in one household! It was chaos, but a fun sort of chaos. The cousins all had a lot of fun playing together, and the adults did too! Towards the end of the evening, the adults even got in on using the kids toys! Emily had gotten some sort of glitter hair color thing that colors your hair pink or blue (and washed out apparently) that all the adults were trying to tackle each other to use one another. Funny how most of the guys ended up with it in their hair and a lot of the girls didn’t… hmmmm!
Aunt Liza and Uncle Shawn making faces at Isabella
Eric playing with Bailey's pink phone. He's SO ready for Paris!
Erin and Tony
And my favorite of the day... little Miss Isabella looking all adorable.
Wednesday, December 24th
Christmas Eve was spent with last minute frantic shopping, last minute frantic wrapping, and last minute frantic resting. Jonathan and I were both still sick, but it was now or never! I was able to get my last few presents early in the morning before the crowds, do my grocery shopping for Christmas Day, and warp everything all at once in the evening.
We continued our tradition of opening one gift on Christmas Eve. I gave Jonathan the new Monopoly game, a big surprise since I have refused to play that game with him for ten years after how disastrous our last attempt was!
Tuesday, December 23rd
Still sick, but was able to rally enough energy to visit Santa at auntie’s house. I knew Shawn and Liza were in with the kids and we were anxious to see how Andrew was doing after his huge health scare this year. I also knew that Melanie would be bringing Isabella for her first Santa trip, so I drug myself there. Since I missed wearing the dress that I was supposed to wear at Saturday’s holiday party, I decided to wear it especially for Santa instead. He did ask me if I had been nice this year and I said “Eh… mostly.” He said “That’s ok, Santa likes it a little naughty sometimes too!”
A few highlights….
Isabella was not having any part of it!
Probably my favorite photo of the night, Maddy with her Auntie Erin
Another one of my favorites. These kids just love their Auntie Erin...
Quote from Jonathan: "Carter, shoot your aunite! Carter, get auntie!"
That toy was a hit for the night
And there’s WAY too many good Santa photos to share them all, but these are some of my favorites…
Monday, December 22nd
Since I have been too sick to function, let alone snap a few photos, I rely on the Ghost of Christmas past for today. I was scanning through old family photos from past Christmases and came across this one of my mom that caught my eye.Her younger brother Mike was born when she was a little older, so she would have been 11 in this photo. I just love how she is holding him and showing him the tree. Probably some ornament that she loved and wanted to share with him. I love how you can already tell in this photo what a great mom she will be.
Mom has always been a big fan of Christmas. I think that is where I get my spirit from. No matter how much she may have been struggling, she ALWAYS spoiled us during the holidays and made Christmas incredibly fun. Even now she sends more than she can afford and tells us she just wants to share with us and send us a little something.
Sunday, December 21st
Someone posted recently on one of the scrapbooking boards about what your favorite toy was that you received for Christmas as a kid. I immediately thought of the year I got my cabbage patch kid. They had just been released and were very hard to find (and very expensive!), so I didn’t think I would ever get one. But come Christmas morning, I was surprised by my present of my very own cabbage patch doll! My mom told me in later years it took lots of searching and even help from others to find one, but she eventually snatched one up! When I found this photo, I also found others from that Christmas.
My grandpa Mosakewicz gave me that teddy bear that year (I collected Teddy Bears as a kid and Melanie liked unicorns!) I kept that teddy bear, the only one I kept as an adult from my whole collection, to remind me of him. I sadly had to give it up, as I gave up a lot of things when I moved back from Colorado and only brought a few suitcases back with me, but I think I will remember that bear forever! I’m guessing by my pose in the photo that I must have gotten some new nail polish too! 
And then there’s this photo… probably showing off our new outfits that we received as gifts. I think Melanie’s outside was a full jumpsuit with pockets… that’s hot! What a bunch of hams!
Saturday, December 20th
I was sadly disappointed to not be able to attend my friend’s holiday party with her work. I got sick on Friday night and was way too under the weather to go. I’ve made friends with a bunch of the ladies from her work, so it was hard to back out, since I knew how much fun the night would be. She tried to persuade me with a couple of shots to cure my cold, but alas, I couldn’t do it!
Speaking of holiday parties, I found this photo of Jonathan and me from when we attended our first holiday party together. It was ten years ago and I was working at Money Mailer as their receptionist. He was still working at Xerox and we had only been dating for three months. Look how young we were… and at that HORRIBLE mustache!
Friday, December 19th
My first holiday party at RT. We went to PF Changs for lunch and played holiday games (I won two of them! Go Me!) and came back to work for a white elephant exchange. It was quite hilarious seeing some of the reactions to gifts and how polite everyone seemed to be. There were a few that were stolen quickly, but for the most part, it was a clam and fun day.
Thursday, December 18th
My last photo session of the season with my neighbors and friends, the Keyes family. I was feeling pretty exhausted and like I had a cold coming on, so I wasn’t entirely up to par, but overall the end result turned out fairly decent, if I may say so myself…
Wednesday, December 17th
As a treat for spending enough money in their store to feed a small village, Green Tangerines hosted a free class and dinner night for me and other top customers. We made this cute little travel album that was originally designed by Teresa Collins. I am SO loving mini-albums right now. Guess I better get to work on putting together my December Daily!
