It was a very merry Christmas, and a happy New Year

We had a wonderful holiday season...the only bad part is that it's over. I enjoyed quite a bit of time off of work and with Kyle not in school, we were able to spend quite a bit of time with each other. We were very happy that we were able to visit both my family and Kyle's for the holidays, and wish we could have spent more time with both.

We headed up to my parents for Christmas. They were in the middle of a great snowstorm when we arrived and it continued through the night. The next day we decided that Porter should enjoy some time out in the snow. So, we headed to the basement and pulled out some of my old winter clothes. We packed him into my old purple snowpants that I wore when I was probably 5 or 6. We rolled up the pantlegs, tied a nice little bow with the shoulder straps and he was ready to go. The snow came up past his waist, but he was determined to make it to Gramma and Grampa's snow-covered teeter-totter in the backyard. By the time we made it back to the house, he was so tired and cold that he shook off his gloves, climbed up to the back door and kept pointing for us to go back in.

We had a great time at the Benton's for our annual Fiesta on Christmas Eve, complete with a pinata this year. I don't know what Christmas would be without Fiesta. I can't begin to fathom not eating Momma's chimichanga's on Christmas Eve.

On Christmas morning we enjoyed watching Porter open his presents. We put two little matchbox cars in his stocking...and that was all he wanted. We had a difficult time getting him to put them down to open another gift, and after a while we just gave up. We opened some of his presents for him and even saved one to open later since he was so disinterested in opening them.

He cruised around the family room for quite a while making "vroom vroom" noises with the cars.

We had to run home on Christmas day so that I could work that night...but with an awful cough that made me lose my voice around 1 am, they sent me home early. I discovered that you can't do my job if you have no voice. It just doesn't work, trust me... I tried.

The next morning we headed to Gramma and Grampa C.'s house as planned. We were able to spend an entire week at their house. I battled with my cough and congestion and then I graciously gave it to Kyle and Porter. We also caught Chase's stomach bug and ended up spending most of the week in our jammies drinking all the fluids we could.

We were able to heal up enough to enjoy our New Year's Eve festivities though. We played games, watched movies and I kissed my honey at midnight. It was a great New Year's... although it was not completely free of its excitement.

We went to bed at about 1:30 and about 15 minutes later Porter woke up screaming... with swollen lips. So, another allergic reaction to kick off the start of the year. Being a good boy like he is, Porter took his Benadryl like a champ and a few hours later his lips were almost back to normal.

We've had 7 blissful months free of reactions...I guess we were due for another. I just wish that we could figure out what has been the cause. This little boy is still a mystery.

The holidays were wonderful and we're looking forward to another great year.