Ho ho ho!!!!!

We are in Ohio for the holidays!!! It is hard to believe that I haven't been here since last May, and I definitely missed it. There's something about this sign that warms my heart:

We settled in at my parents' house, along with Mark, Liz, Grant, and Corbin - quite the full house! We went to grandma's for Christmas Eve - years ago, we used to do a big dinner, and everyone would be on food overload - now, my grandma does soup and sandwiches, and it's just perfect. Lily loved playing with great-grandma's piano -

And it was great to see Cricket again!! She's doing well, nice and spoiled and enjoying all the squirrels which provide plenty of entertainment for her.

When we got home, the kids snuggled up on the couch to watch a show before bed. Considering the general mayhem generated by Lily and Grant all throughout the day, it was a welcome half hour of stillness and quiet.

Of course, before they went off to bed, the kids left out cookies and milk for Santa, and carrots for the reindeer.

Christmas is a lot of fun again with kids who get all caught up in the magic :-) Lily was pretty excited, but threats of Santa only coming while children were sleeping convinced her to go to bed.

Here they are on Christmas morning, waiting at the top of the stairs - we had to make sure everyone was ready with cameras on hand!!!

Not only did Lily get her big red race car, so did Grant!! They were both pretty thrilled, and started driving them right there in the living room.

It took a while to get them interested in their stockings, but eventually they were persuaded...

After breakfast, we proceeded to the rest of the presents!! This year, Lily had the attention span to open all her presents herself, and I had fun watching her.

Lily got a little chest of dress-up clothes, so here she is as "Lily Princess", and Grant got some cool Buckeyes gear:

And, of course, as soon as the adults could be convinced to bundle up and head outside, we tested out the race cars on the open road (or, the quiet, mostly undeveloped cul de sac - don't worry!)

They had a blast and spent the better part of an hour driving around!! My dad tried to set up a little driving course with some cardboard boxes, but apparently it was more fun to just ram the boxes :-)

All in all, a pretty darn good Christmas. It is so nice to be able to spend the whole week with my Mom and Dad. I've got work hanging over my head a bit, but I'm trying to relax and enjoy this time.

I hope you all had a wonderful, happy holiday. Now it's time to start thinking about 2012!!