It may seem like I’ve given up on blogging, and there were days when I thought the same thing. Life is finally feeling a little normal again, so I think it’s time to get back on the horse. To be honest, all my Christmas pics from our trip in NC were on my laptop, and I was too lazy to unpack the laptop to transfer the pictures to flickr. The deed is done now, and I now I can blog about Christmas.

Our time in NC was relaxing and fun. The weather cooperated all week with sunshine and warmth in the high 50’s most of the week. It was a nice break from the snow/wind/cold. My dad wanted me to search for retirement homes for him one day, so Mike decided that day would be a great opportunity to take the girls on the ferry over to Bald Head Island. They rented a golf cart and toured a couple of lighthouses. The girls had lots of stories to tell and shells to show.

On the ferry.

At the lighthouse.

Can you imagine the excitement these little girls had when they got to ride in the golf cart?

A chilly day on the beach.

The house my dad rented was right on the water. It was gorgeous.

The town was all along the water with a quaint downtown within walking distance of the house. We decided one morning to go for some hot cocoa and muffins down at the local coffee shop. Lucy accompanied us. She was made to wait outside, and looked so pathetic as she stood by.

Mimi and Lucy are great buddies.

My dream is to one day have wrap-around porches like this. I have always loved the southern style homes with their large porches.

My dad came well-equipped with Christmas gear including a tree/lights, decorations, stockings, hats, and other stuff. So we felt at home when it was time to open presents.

The girls awoke at about 4 am to open presents, but we made them wait until at least the sun had risen. Finally, at around 7:00 a.m. everyone was up and ready to open presents.

The girls were not thrilled to pose for this picture when all those gifts were just waiting to get torn open.

We had taken the girls a couple of days before Christmas to pick out presents for each other. Mimi gifted Annie with a jewelry box that has a dancing ballerina inside. And Mimi received a pug puppy in a cute purse. She named her Joey in honor of our friend, Matt’s, pet pug with the same name.

All other presents were overshadowed by long-awaited American Girl dolls, Kit Kittredge and Ruthie Smithens. The girls received a few other AG doll accessories like clothes, pet, vet set, etc. and the Kit Kittredge Movie, but the dolls were the big deal for this Christmas.

Of course, we couldn’t forget about Violet. She got some great clothes from Grandpa and lots of fun rattly toys from her stocking.

The adults got some fun gifts, too. Santa got Grandpa a Starbucks thermos and giftcard and a golf pullover from the local golf course. Mike received more hunting gear and new socks. I got a stick vac and a seasons flag pole. My dad wasn’t thrilled about getting me a vacuum cleaner for Christmas, but I told him that’s this is my life and vacuuming is what occupies my mind these days.

Mike and my dad spent a day golfing and another day fishing. Mike set it up to have a fishing guide take the guys out one day for in-shore fishing. It turned out to be a fairly windy/chilly day for it, but the boys survived and came home with lots o’ fish which now sit filleted in our freezer.

We had a really fun Christmas, and I’m glad we decided to make the trip down south. It actually reminded me a lot of my Christmas’ from my youth where we’d usually spend the holidays down in Florida.

Mike’s been at it again, sneaking away from work to do some fishing. He’s come home 2 days in a row with these monster salmon. He’s so proud of accomplishments. These fish are going to get smoked. Can’t wait to try it.

Yesterday’s fish.

Today’s catch was a female.

How did we know, you ask? Take a look for yourself.

Enough eggs to fill up a bowl. Just call her fertile Myrtle.

Huge fish means huge filets.

In other news my mom came for a visit this week. She’s in the process of relocating to Chicago, so she did some searching for new digs. The perfect place was found, and she’ll be moving into her new place in the next couple of weeks. The girls are super excited about having their Grandma so close and getting the chance to visit with her more often.

Mike gets just about every holiday off since he’s a government employee. This Columbus Day was no different. We decided to visit Minnesota for the three days, so that the rest of Mike’s family could meet Violet. Of course, the girls also love spending time with Grandma Minnesota, the cousins, anuts, and knuckles. There was no shortage of that. On Saturday morning Knuckle Jake cooked up some brunch for everyone (delish, as always), and we got to see most everyone except for Anut Sara and Knuckle Dave. Fear not, we did finally get to see them on Sunday evening for a dinner at Ma Olsen’s house. The one bad thing about these visits is that they are usually short, and we are sad to eventually have to go home.

While unpacking the suitcase we finally remembered where we stored Violet during the car trip.

At Jake’s brunch Violet got to meet many of her new relatives and get held a lot. She loved that part. Marissa, Owen, and Maya are enjoying their new relative here.

Matt and Dylan will be celebrating their birthdays this month, so it seemed appropriate to celebrate it while we were all together.

Even Lily the husky greeted her with warm kisses.

According to his mother uncle Jake has always been a fan of babies. Maya seems to have inherited that gene from her daddy. She was funny with me and kept coming up to me to ask who I was. You would think that she would remember me since we’ve spent time together on at least a dozen occasions. I must not be that memorable (sniff, sniff).

As usual Grandma has the magic touch and can put Violet to sleep in mere seconds. On two separate occasions, no less.

It was discovered that the furnace was not operating properly and not generating any heat. It got pretty darn cold on Saturday night, so we pulled out the snuggly, winter suit for Violet to wear to bed. Isn’t she cute? I had a hard time putting her to bed because she was so soft and cuddly in this.

The next night was dinner at Grandma’s house. Mike acquired a few pheasants from a friend, but they needed to be plucked first before freezing. All the cousins were fascinated with the processing of the birds. Paul and Dave helped with the plucking, and the little kids were curious to see the heart. Owen kept his distance though.

Like brother, like brother.

He likes to scare small chidren, too (just kidding, he’s actually a fun uncle).

The girls got ahold of the camera. Mimi’s model pose.

My guess is that this was taken by Mimi just a tad too close or something…hmmm?!? Or were they just in the red light district? And what in the world is going on with Annie’s mouth?!?

On the way out of town we met up with Grandpa Minnesota for lunch. Although it was a short visit it was still nice for the girls to see Grandpa and for Violet to meet him for the first time.

Violet received her blessing at church today. Mike did a wonderful job giving our little girl her blessing. The Evans (Jim, Sara, Hayley, and Matt) and Grandma Kathy came for the event. It was a very short visit, but we still enjoyed what little time we had together with good eats and great conversation. I’m glad they made the trip.

All of us after church.

Of course, we took this opportunity to get a family picture.

As usual, Mike couldn’t take it seriously, and neither could the girls for that matter.

Had to get a nice picture of Jim and Sara since they were all gussied up, too.

Grandma and Violet.

Can you believe this is the same dress that Annie wore for our sealing back when Annie was 15 months old (made by the very talented Auntie Sara)?

Violet went on her first road trip this weekend to go my brother’s wedding which was 3 hours away, and Violet did fabulous. She slept most of the time on the way there and back. I pumped some milk into a bottle, and Violet took the bottle without a fuss. Mike wants to step it up a notch and make a trip to MN for the Columbus holiday. I’m not so sure, and I don’t think Annie even has that holiday off from school. We’ll see.

Speaking of the wedding. We got all gussied up and had a fun time. The girls got to wear tutus, got complimented a ton, and loved every minute of it. They danced the night away with both Daddy and Grandpa Indiana. It was nice to spend an evening with Grandpa and Joey and Josh. I haven’t seen Joey in years (since my own wedding over 11 years ago), so it was nice to catch up with him and meet his new wife, too. Josh and Erin (his new bride) looked great. We also got to meet their little guy, Keegan. The girls were excited to learn about having a new cousin. They love cousins! Glad we could make the trip and see everyone!

The girls absolutely loved their tutus, but Mimi wasn’t very keen on getting her picture taken in it. Three times were not a charm.

Daddy actually got out on the dance floor to dance a few numbers with his 2 princesses. Of course, I had to document that moment. Can you tell that the girls were in heaven?

We could barely get the girls off the dance floor, even to come eat their cake.

The group shots. Grandpa with our fam and another with Josh, Erin, Joey, Rachel, and us.

Violet got a little lively during the night. She actually got quite fussy for a bit, but once the d.j. starting cranking out some (loud) tunes she went right to sleep.

Erin’s grandmother is also a Violet, so we thought it was appropriate to photograph the 2 Violets together.

Another surprise for us on the way home was that Violet start smiling for real at people. I’ll try to get a for a real smile from her and post a picture soon.