'Twas the season to be Jolly!

The holiday season this year was GREAT! I had no idea how much kids add to the excitement of the season. This year I wanted to get started early with presents, but the problem with buying presents for kids early is they change their minds sometimes every hour! If you asked Nick what was going to ask Santa for he would say everything, and he meant it. Andrea on the other hand couldn't decide on anything. Good thing I kept all the receipts...

Anyway, we started out the holiday season with Thanksgiving at my house with all of Mike's family. It was a blast and crazy at the same time. Since this was my first Thanksgiving I was a little stressed about it, mainly that the Turkey would not turn out. Well, I did an apple juice brine on the turkey and started it the day before, and it turned out awesome. It was so juicy that when we poked in the thermometer to check the temp it squirted juice out at us! The funny thing is that I was so focused on dinner I forgot to take a single picture :( I even did decorations on the table, I know none of you probably believe it but I really did decorate the table.

This is the only picture I have from around that day. Kyle is definately growing fast!

On the Friday after Thanksgiving Andrea and I went with Mike's Mom, Sisters and Nieces to the Rockettes concert. They were really fun to watch, and Andrea was completely enthralled with them the whole time! This was their Toy Soldier dance.

Andrea and Kate got to sit next to each other at the performance. Andrea loves her cousin Kate!

The next day we went to the Cache Nutcracker Ballet. And yes, that is Mike in the picture at the Ballet loving every minute of it. Andrea really liked this ballet especially since her friend Kristen was in it as one of the clowns.

This is Andrea, Kristen, and Kristen's sister Kate along with the Gingerbread "mom" from the Nutcracker. If you have not seen the ballet, the clowns hide under the Gingerbread mom's skirt and come running out when they get onto centerstage. This guy walks on stilts with 8 little kids under his dress across the stage, pretty amazing!

Of course we usually send out Christmas cards, but we had some issues with the pictures this year. (See below)

This is the best one I got, but Nick's face was out of focus. I will try again next year and hopefully they will cooperate a little more.