Want to hold onto him forever.

Last night at dinner Tyler asked if Moms could go to college.  I love that boy!  I told him by the time he goes to college he won't want me to go with him, he begs to differ.  I wish I could bottle up these moments and make them last forever.

Christmaspalooza 2010!

Another Christmas has come and gone.  It's always such an exciting time, a happy time, but also a very busy time for me and I tend to get quite exhausted by the end of it all.  Needless to say, I am always a little happy when it's over, but also a little sad that the excitement has passed once again.

Christmas Eve:

This year we went to a Chinese restaurant in RI for Christmas Eve.  It's the same restaurant that my family always went to on Christmas Eve when I was a child, so it's fun and also nostalgic to go back.  We visited my Grandmother and she joined us for dinner, along with my brother and his family, my mother, and father and his family.  The kids were excited to get home and get to bed.  They were both out like a light which was great for us.  They did however wake up at 3:30 in the morning wanting to open gifts.  Um... no guys, that's TOO EARLY!!!  So back to sleep they went and at some point ended up in bed with Stephen and I.  I woke up at 7:00 am to see both kids and Steve sound asleep, it really was a heartwarming moment and a cherished Christmas memory for me.  They woke up minutes later and were ready to finally open the presents.  Santa once again spoiled them!

The best part of Christmas for me is seeing their expressions as they open gifts.  Especially when they open gifts from each other, it's always such a loving moment.

Once we were done with our presents it was time to play with the new toys and clean the house for round two.  We had my entire immediate family here.  It's so great to see all the cousins get to spend time together, and it's super fun to watch them grow.

I realized the other day that in my 34 years of life there has never been a Christmas that I didn't spend with my brother and sister, I think that's pretty cool.  And hopefully there will never be a Christmas that we spend apart.

So even though I was super tired and maybe a little cranky at times, it's definitely another great Christmas I will always look back on and smile about.

Ho...ho...ho...

We had a holiday party at our house last week and it was super fun!  We invited all the neighbors with children and our other close local friends with kids.  The kids played, the adults ate and chatted, and then we had a visit from the big man himself!  Santa and Mrs. Claus showed up at our house for a visit.  Each kid got a gift and time to sit with him and talk a bit.  It was super cute and hopefully my kids understand how very cool it was to have Santa here.

And this is how Santa arrived:

Charlotte...

She's a menace, but so are all of us... never a dull moment in the Teebagy house!

Baking time...

Sunday was spent in the kitchen!  It was the beginning of my annual Christmas cookie baking.  I love to give out a tray of cookies to all my neighbors, friends, and family before the holiday.  Juliana was a big help this year and was there to help.  Tyler was busy playing wii, but was there to help decorate the sugar cookies.  This is just phase one, phase two will begin tomorrow.

Holiday concert.

I still can't believe Juliana is in fourth grade, her last year of elementary school.  She is loving this year, she loves her teacher, her friends, and most of all I think she loves being the big kid at school.  I feel like it was just yesterday I was dropping her off at a new school in a new town for kindergarten, when in fact that was almost four years ago, it will be four years in January, that's when we moved to Connecticut.  This week she had her holiday concert for band and chorus.  All the fourth grade is involved in chorus and they can choose whether they want to be in band or not.  Juliana is playing the drum, which is very cool as there are only four drummers and she is the only girl.  At her concert she performed with her drum in a group from band and then the entire fourth grade sang.  They sounded amazing!  I cannot believe the singing talent in her class, and even though there were almost 50 students, we could pick her voice out clear as a sunny day.  The dress code was black bottom, white top, and black shoes.  She insisted on a skirt and t-shirt, as she said she gets very hot on stage.  I did talk her into leggings since it was 19 degrees outside!