Christmas and New Years

We had such a great Christmas. Hunter really enjoyed the Advent Calendar during the month of December and learned how to be patient with waiting for the big day to arrive. We all went to church on Christmas Eve as a family, which I especially loved. I go every Sunday "alone" with the kids and to have John there with us was really special. Christmas morning we opened gifts at home, had a big breakfast and then headed to Madison to spend the day/evening with John's parents. We ate spedini, an Italian tradition celebrated in the Collins household. YUM! We left earlier than in years past because of the snow and icy roads. Hunter was sad when I told him we would be taking the holiday decorations down until next year and insisted that we wait until the end of the month (Dec.) to do so. I complied although I desperately wanted them packed away earlier. Our house seems so crowded lately. It feels like we have an in-home daycare with all of the baby apparatus in our living room. The Christmas tree takes up a lot of much-needed space and I just wanted it gone. I'm happy that it's January and we don't have any holiday decorations out anymore.

We celebrated New Years by taking Hunter bowling for the first time. We went with a few friends and their families during the day yesterday and Hunter could not have been more excited. He was REALLY loving it and it was so much fun to watch. We used bumpers and tried to get him to use a ramp but when he saw that none of the adults were using it he preferred to just throw the ball out there without it. He's pretty good considering the strength that that requires! He got an 84 (of course, the bumpers helped his score out tremendously). After bowling we put the boys to bed and John and I went out to dinner for the first time since March. It was sooooo nice.