Blizzard of 2010!

Merry Christmas!  We had a great Christmas at the Smith house this year. We got to webcam on Christmas Eve with all of our family back home in Nebraska. That made it even more special to get to see everyone.  The girls really love the webcam. They do get a little crazy and it can be chaotic but it's nice that they get to see everyone. Gotta love technology! 

We had a huge snowstorm on the 26th.   Blizzard like conditions and about 19 inches of snow fell starting Sunday morning into the early morning hours of Monday.  We had big plans this weekbut they were not meant to be! We were supposed to go to NYC and see the tree with my parents but they never made it to us.  The airports were shut down and they couldn't get a flight out to Philly till late in the week.  I spent all day in bed Monday crying my eyes out but I'm starting to bounce back.  I had my little self pity party but it's time to buck up now.  The girls took it really well too.  Abby was pretty upset on Monday but she is back to her old self again.  We are all looking forward to them coming in the near future.Thankfully we can webcam anytime we want!   Hopefully mother nature will cooperate this time! Overall we had a nice Christmas and we are looking forward to the New Year. 

Happy Birthday to Emily

Emily turned 2 this week!  I personally can't believe how fast the time has flown.  It seems like yesterday that our little family of 3 became a family of 4.  She is truly a blessing.  Emily has quite the personality for such a little girl.  Tonight we had some friends over for cake and ice cream and she decided to show our friends a little bit of her attitude that I am always telling them about.  Emily was running down the hallway and she looked over her shoulder back at our friend and she stuck her tongue out at him!  That's my kid! TROUBLE!  I think the terrible 2's have arrived.  Wish me luck.  

Overall she had a great birthday.  She loved opening up her gifts. In fact today the day after her birthday she kept bringing me Christmas presents that were under the tree to open.  I keep having to explain to her that her birthday is over and she has to wait till Christmas to open more gifts.  Emily's response to this is, "NO!"  That's her new favorite word by the way.   My good friend Carol made Emily's birthday cake this year and it was wonderful.  Emily has a very deep love of Elmo and Carol graciously offered to make Emily an Elmo cake.  Emily loved it and it came out beautifully! 

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Ahh, December!  I love it!  It really is my favorite month. I love the change in the weather, getting ready for Christmas, my birthday and Emily's birthday.The music!  Oh how I love Christmas music! It just never gets old for me.  I've alway's loved Christmastime. I think it has to do with my birthday being 5 days before Christmas and now I love it even more because Emily is also a December baby!  I have so many fond memories of Christmas as a child and an adult.  I remember going to Christmas Eve mass and racing home to wait for everyone to arrive to eat dinner and then open presents! Grandma Jo sitting with us kids in the living room chanting, "Presents, presents, we want presents!"  Those are great memories that I still cherish to this day!
 The food is always delicious at my parents house and I do miss that since I've moved away.  Nothing like Orsi pizza!  We haven't been home for the last 2 Christmases but we do our best here in NJ to make the best of it.  We put our tree up last weekend and it has been quite wonderful watching my girls explore and touch the tree. Abby is still enchanted with the ornaments and the ribbon that goes around the tree and of course all the gifts underneath it! It  is really fun to watch Emily explore the tree this year.  Last year she had just turned 1 and she really wasn't into to much trouble but this year she is certainly up to no good!  I look over and I catch her standing as close as she can to the tree and she is touching and looking carefully at every ornament she can!  She brings me ornaments she has taken off the tree and I help her put them back on!  Today I walked into the living room and noticed she had unraveled some of the ribbon off the lower portion of the tree. No big deal though, we just fixed it. I think this will be a great Christmas. We have been blessed this year and I hope and pray this trend continues.  Merry Christmas!