What to do now?

Whew! The holidays are over! Now, don't get me wrong...I LOVE the holidays with all of the decorations, music, food and family, but I'm ready to get back to our "normal" life. Well...if you can call it normal. :) I know that technically New Year's is the end of the holiday season, however, in our house we will be hangin' out at home with our bottle of Martinelli's tonight.

I know you're jealous. :) There was a time that I would search out a great party and shop for an awesome outfit. It really doesn't feel like it was that long ago when my focus was on the party. :)

We did have a great Christmas filled with family and LOTS of presents!

These were the big Santa gifts. Even though you can't see all the wrapped presents behind these Santa gifts, they are spilling over. Way too generous!!

Gotta have stocking gifts! My mom made all of the stockings except mine. My grandma, Mina, made mine when I was a baby. :)

Now let me share a little of the Christmas celebration. It was Ava's first Christmas and she really got into it. Dylan was more aware of  what was happening this year and had such a great time! I loved seeing his enthusiasm!

 He can almost ride this using the pedals! He will ride for a few pedal turns then stop. :)

She loves this thing!!!  I'm hoping there are more pictures of me with my family on my mom's camera. :)

I come from a family that loves to play games. We are a high energy group. :)  We had a game of Chicken Foot going for a couple of days along with Spider Solitaire on all the tech devices...phones, ipads, laptop, etc. If you've never played Chicken Foot, it's a fun game that you play with dominoes.

Included in this love of games is the opportunity to put a wager on almost anything. We have been playing in a family fantasy football league for six years now. The pot this year was $400 and guess who won...MEEEE! I was the Surprise Attack Ninjas.

I don't know why, but ninjas are always funny. :)

Now I wish I could say my win was going to be fun money, but we had some bad luck with the van and it needed two new back tires. So...there goes the winnings.

Another source of money this week...football pools! It's not the traditional pool, but a random square game where it is total luck if you win. We played $1 a square for both the Charger game and the MNF game. The number of squares each player gets depends on the amount of people playing. I wasn't the big winner this time, but made a presence. :)

Now that everyone is back to their respective homes, we have been sifting through all of the gifts and trying to figure out where to put everything! Randy and Dylan cleaned up his room and picked out a small pile of toys to donate to kiddos that don't have toys. Dylan got into it. :) The house is slowly getting back to order.

Since today is the last day of 2011, what am I looking for in 2012? Here is a quick list...
* Lot's of funny times with the kiddos.
* Getting back to my pre-baby body and ready for a race with my dad in Oct.
* A possible move? We hope we'll be seeing CA soon.
* A year where we have very few if any repairs on the rentals. This year was brutal!
* More time to get creative and crafty. :)
* As always, more visits with my friends from all over!

Happy New Year to all of you!!