Holiday Haze

Why is it that we eat so much for the holidays? Ugh! I believe I am still in a "holiday food haze" as mom went all out this year on food...and with Jenna home, there is never a lack of homemade chex mix and other goodies! She likes to bake so we always tend to have something around.

We had a pretty low-key Christmas this year! I was somewhat disappointed by the fact that we didn't have any snow for the big day, but I watched White Christmas as a supplement! haha

Our Christmas started on Sunday, Dec. 21st...mom, Jenna, and I (along with the Brancamp family) hosted the Wagner Christmas. It's our annual family "reunion" of sorts and always a good time. My great-aunts are some of the BEST cooks EVER!! There is never a lack of food! ha Nessa & Jared (our cousins who are a sis/bro that live together...ha) kept us entertained with stories and I think we did our fair share of entertaining as well! :p After we got the church hall cleaned up, Jenna and I headed to Sara & Andy's for the Menchhofer Christmas. We arrived as everyone was finishing dinner, so we made it in time for the presents! The ever adorable Ethan was our present-passer-outer...haha...a job he seems to enjoy each year! There were plenty of goodies to be passed out, but the smash hits were our (Jenna, Zach & me) gifts to the entire family. At Thanksgiving (by nothing short of a miracle!), our ENTIRE family managed to get together for family photographs. The Menchhofer family hadn't ever done this in my lifetime!?! We took those pictures and created a 2009 wall calendar with everyone's birthdays/anniversaries. It looks really good! Then Zach put all the pictures that Jenna and Eric took onto CDs so they could get prints made if they wanted. The grand finale was definitely Gran's gift...we had the picture of our entire family (Gran + her 3 boys + families) blown up and matted/framed. She LOVED it! We knew she was excited about it, but that night after gifts were out and about...she told me she didn't know who's idea it was (it was mine originally), but she was so glad that we had done it! :D :D JOB WELL DONE!! (she is THE hardest person to buy for!)



Christmas Day was spent at home with mom and Jen. We ate lots, watched tv, played Wii, and even fit in a few naps! ha Toby enjoyed his first Christmas with us (his 2nd Christmas overall)! I could barely get his treats out of his stocking before he was on the run with them! :)



The rest of the holiday week was spent hanging out here at home. Zach came over a few nights and we played Wii/hung out for several hours each time. It was so nice getting to see everyone, even if only for a few hours here and there!!

I hope everyone had a safe and blessed holiday! It's almost time for New Year's...I can't believe 2008 is on the way out the door! This year flew by! My computer is full of memories in picture format of this past year and I hope everyone else can say the same...