Happy Holidays!

December was a mix of crazy busy and crazy lazy for me.  The end of November I worked 11 days straight without a day off and went right into 15 nights straight the beginning of December (all 12+ hour shifts).  Needless to say I got little accomplished during that time, but our house did get decorated for the holidays (mostly thanks to Troy).

 The kids got to go to Zoo Lights (basically they deck out the zoo with millions of Christmas lights for the holidays) with friends & neighbors - the Vance's, while Troy and I went out to eat for my birthday.  They had a great time and you can see by the lack of jackets it was pretty nice weather.

Riding the zoo train, Anya and Thayden

Seeing Santa Claus at the zoo

Troy and the kids did some holiday decorating of other sorts as well.

The great thing about working so many days in a row is that I was able to get off for 12 days straight.  We drove to Minnesota, spent time with family, and had 6 Christmas's!  Here are a few photos from our trip, mostly focused on the festivities.

Getting into the liquor cabinet with cousin Max

Her hair is getting long enough we may need to trim those bangs!

cousin high fives

Stockings at the Davis Christmas

Eating some of the paper?

Boxes are always just as entertaining as toys

Excited about her new outfit (already on!) and vanity with cell phone

Great-grandkids at the Steinbach Christmas

I don't think the candy canes contributed to smiles

The Steinbach Christmas

Christmas Eve at Gamma & Papa's

Sierra was so beautiful in her dress from Grandma Diane!

She ate 4 servings of roast beef (we don't eat beef in our house ever)

Lots of craziness after some food

Eating oyster stew

Thayden thought he would like the oysters but not so much

She loved jumping down the stairs and landing with her dress bellowed out

Did you know they made Cabbage Patch dolls again?

Thayden says next Christmas he wants this in real life, I don't think so buddy

Showing Papa her baby doll

She stripped naked to put on jammies, but stayed naked for the next hour

Thayden was VERY excited about his Christmas jammies

Christmas morning.  The boys helping to distribute gifts

Sierra as the youngest started with some beautiful clothes

A puppy :) 

This is Bumblebee.   This is the #1 thing Thayden asked for this Christmas

It's a car and transformer guy for those of you, like me, had no idea what "Bumblebee" was

And again Sierra is naked

But at least now she is willing to put on pants

Yet again the box dominates

According to Josh, this is why women are the way they are, obsessed with fashion, babies and shopping.

Topless girl in cowgirl boots and a shopping cart

You can't see the whole thing, but this is a survival sack Mike made to keep in the car in case we get stranded in a snow storm

Sierra reading one of her new puzzle books

Christmas Day at Trosts

My two cutie pies

Attempts at family pictures for (very late) holiday cards

Ultimately, this was the winner to go on the cards that we will hopefully be sending out in a couple weeks :)

As you can see, it was uncharacteristically warm for MN in December (and definitely not a white Christmas)

Fire

We are now back in Denver and back to the daily grind at work.  Looking forward to 2012!