Holiday Hangover settled--UPDATED

**Picture overload--this is your fair warning!**

We hope that everyone had an amazing Christmas and a Happy and safe New Year's Eve celebration...and that 2012 is off to a fabulous start!!  I know that if I were a good blogger, I would have updated over my week "vacation" with precious pictures of all the fun Christmasy stuff we did, and then again on the 1st with our rockin' New Year's Eve celebration (which consisted of the kids in bed, Kidd sleeping in the la-z-boy, and me reading a book with a glass of wine while the Dick Clark special was on).  Alas, I sorta suck at this.  SO, I bring you good holiday cheer--1) you will find a representative group of pictures below, demonstrating moments from the whole break, and 2) part of my New Year's resolution is to be more consistent with my blogging.  Don't be surprised to find random short entries on a pretty regular basis.

We had a wonderful holiday, which passed much too quickly.  Typical.  We started on Christmas Eve morning with our mini Christmas at home.  Since we travel for Christmas, we designated this time to exchange our gifts to each other so as not to have to load them in the car and then bring them back.

Delaney was less impressed with the morning's events...

Then we headed off to Lytle to be with Kidd's Grandma Granberg, and the whole Granberg family.  It's always a great time--all the aunts and uncles and cousins that can attend do, and it usually ends up being around 30 or so people.  Kidd is the oldest grandchild (of 15) in this family, and the youngest is now a junior in high school.  When I first started attending Granberg Christmas, roughly 13-14 years ago, Kidd and the cousins around his age were the "kids" table and the little ones ran around.  Now, we sit with the other grown ups, those "little ones" who are between 16 and 20-something are the kids table, and there are 11 great grandkids...well, 11.9 since one is due in the next couple of weeks!  6 of these great grandkiddos got to play and run around together this year.

Justus, Hanna, Jake and Freddy

Delaney got to spend time with lots of the grown ups, since the big kids understandably (and probably to everyone's benefit) didn't have much interest in playing with her.  Here, she's getting some quality time with her great grandma. Funny point of interest--our kids have two living great grandparents--both wonderful women named Dorothy!  Hmmm, something to that?

Late Christmas Even night, we hopped back in the family truckster, and Justus and I pulled up my Santa Tracker app (wow, times have changed!) only to find that Santa was on his way to G-Daddy and Darla's house.  So, we raced over there and got immediately into bed so Santa would be sure to stop by with a few trinkets for the kids. Which he did.  Despite Mom and Dad's threats that he may not. 

We woke up to find that Santa had come.

I particularly like that Santa reminds them to mind their parents.  Smart man!  There was a partially eaten cookie left, but Justus decided to finish it off for him before I got to take a picture.

Santa footprints from the fireplace all around the room.

Christmas morning was a great adventure as the kids tore into their loot, to find that Santa brought exactly what was wanted.  How does he do that? 

The beloved Tiger Castle. 

Not sure what it does, but it was specifically requested.  Note the Santa pj's.  Kissing up, perhaps? 

I will be the first to tell you that Justus did not get much on his first Christmas.  He was 11 months old and had no idea what Christmas was.  We decided there was no point in doing all the hoop-la and would save it for when it really mattered to him.  We did the same for Delaney last year since she was all of 3 weeks old at Christmas.  If it were up to us, we would have done the same this year since she still is oblivious.   However, previously-mentioned-now-almost-5-year-old was having none of that.  There have been a few conversations about what Santa would bring Delaney.  So, I have now identifed the one, and so far, seemingly only time the 2nd child actually gets MORE than what the 1st child got at same lifestage--we had Santa gifts for Delaney this year so that Justus wouldn't question why the big man from the Northpole didn't leave his little sister anything.  I suppose if I were more clever, I could have come up with some explanation about Santa not bringings gifts to babies because they don't know, etc. but I just wasn't.  So we did.  It was fine.   But no pictures, because as expected, she didn't really care.  We did take a few pics before they changed out of pj's to get ready for lunch.

 They had fun playing that morning with toys and each other and just hanging out. 

 

Delaney and G-Daddy chillin'

                 Darla helping Delaney down the stairs with a  newly acquired microphone

My brother, Jason, and his family came over for lunch and we had a great time.  They have two boys that Justus loves to play with, even though he is in between ages of them.  All three boys played and had a great time...and didn't destroy the Barger home.  Cute family, huh?

 Christmas night, we took Darla and the kids down to the river barges in San Antonio to look at the lights on the river. 

Cold, but excited.  Can't you tell?

Being a San Antonio native, I have seen the river lights, river parade, and have been on the river barge...a time or two, but it wasn't something we did a lot of.  It was a great time taking the kids down there and pretending to be tourists.  I actually learned a lot about the Riverwalk area.  And, I would much rather have done it in cold weather than the 100+ temps we get down there in the summer.  One note--if you do this, take a military person, senior, or local with you.  They all get discounts.  Not that it's pricey, but a discount is a discount.  The fact that I was born in the Alamo City and lived there for 18 years got me nuthin'.  Hmmm...

We hiked it back to good ol' Aggieland the day after Christmas and Kidd went back to work while the kiddos and I had time off.  Justus went to Powersports and ran himself tired with new friends while Delaney and I ran errands and took down Christmas decorations.  And just spent time together.

New Year's Day was great family time--we went on a walk, ate the required New Year's Day foods, and just enjoyed hanging out.  We even watched a little football, I think.  Delaney watched the dogs, mostly.

It's funny to me to notice the pictures that get snapped before I do her hair in the morning.  I am beginning to think this will be a lifelong issue for her.

Now we are back to the hustle and bustle of regular life, but in the year 2012. 

We await all the wonderful adventures and remarkable moments it holds for us.