life and times of the hollerans

Most of the preparations leading up to Christmas and the holidays were lovely.  Crazy at times, trying to shop, bake, decorate, and wrap with our little girls in toe, but none the less, the pay-off on Christmas eve and morning was well worth it…

Getting our tree

Take two of putting the ornaments on

The first evening when we tried to put ornaments on, FI might have been a little tired, maybe overwhelmed…  Yup, we’ll go with that.  She pulled off all the ornaments she could reach and threw them on the floor.  She even carried them into the kitchen to thrown on the tile floor for maximum breakage potential…  The next day, Fi and I quietly put a few choice PLUSH ornaments on the bottom and then things went a little smoother…

making cookies

making cookies with her buddy, Jack. Then we went to a holiday sing-a-long!

Christmas Eve: We continued some traditions- we drove around looking at lights- Fi’s favorite was the giant blow-up Snoopy- she kept asking of we could go back and find Snoopy.  We stopped at the Townsend Town Green and Fi ran around in the snow and among the lights… Then it was time to pick up some Chinese food and head home for a picnic in front of the tree and by the fire. A really awesome evening…

waiting for “Santa” after the girls were in bed…

Christmas morning at home was fun- we opened stockings in our bed with Fi and Willa and then we headed downstairs- Fi was amazed at all the presents under the tree and had a great time opening up all of her presents and Willa’s… Highlights: New dinosaurs, an art table, books, digital camera, puzzles, new instruments for Fi.  An activity cube, teethers, hand toys, and clothes for Willa.

And then… things. get. interesting.  We get to Old Lyme after a semi-rough drive- stopping to feed Willa and Fi barely sleeps… Not the interesting part.  As we are unloading the car, Jeff fell from the back bumper unloading the car-top carrier— big time pain and needless to say, we spend Christmas day at the clinic in Essex. Luckily, we left the girls with my parents and sister.  His arm is broken- they unfortunately don’t cast it because he has to wait for the swelling to go down…  Not the way we wanted to spend the afternoon, but such is life. Two weeks and an MRI later, he finally has a cast and is starting to heal.  Feel terrible for him…

This is no joke- the maintenance guy seriously put this sign outside Jeff’s door while they mopped the floors in the hallway…

Jeff rallied the best he could the next day as we spent it with his family- first, we visited with Cherie.  This was the first time that she met Willa.  And Willa did not disappoint us- she was a doll and Fi cooperated as well 🙂 Then we headed to Gradnmere’s house.  Jeff was able to rest at his Mom’s as we had Candice and Grandmere to hold Willa and Cassidy as the amazing babysitter for Fi!  🙂