Christmas #3 and Adventures with Uncle Ryan

Shortly after Christmas my brother came home from Tucson. So we had another family Christmas on the 29th. It was so fun to get together at our house. We had appetizers for dinner instead of a traditional Christmas dinner and the fun carried us through the entire evening. The tree basically exploded with presents after my parents and brother arrived.

The tree


The table

We started off our celebration in style with a champagne toast. Sophia even had her very own glass to toast with filled with water of course.

The toast

After eating our snackies and catching up, we began opening stockings. It is a tradition in our family that we exchange names and then we buy "stocking" presents that equal up to $20. It is so fun to see how creative people get each year on a budget. Plus it is so fun to get a whole bunch of little presents. After opening stockings, the present opening began and lasted well into the evening. Everyone was happy with their gifts and everyone was more than generous this year!!

Sophia with just some of her presents

My family stayed until everyone was exhausted and in a large food coma. Then it was off to bed for us.


Each year when my brother comes home at Christmas we always make a date to go to the Mall of America. It was a fun day today filled with TONS of rides. Sophia had a great time and enjoyed all of the special "uncle Ryan time" that she got.

The rides and mall wore us both out and we headed back home. We are excited to hang out with Ryan a couple more times until he heads back to Tucson. We did find out good news that he will be home for Sophia's birthday which is very exciting. I'm sure like always we will have some crazy family fun.

It will be difficult to head back to work this week, but I think everyone is ready to get back into a routine. The break has been a welcomed one. Now to look forward to what is to come in 2011.......